Introduction to True Physics (1760) - Page 24

...logisms This completes the word "syllogisms" from the previous page. to drag by the forces of Logic those things refusing to be led: things stronger than my Principles almost mocked their relegation to occult qualities original: "occultas qualitates"; in traditional philosophy, these were "hidden" properties of matter that could not be explained by the four elements or direct observation.. Experience resisted the final effort of my thoughts; it weakened, attacked, and conquered my doctrine. It lay there forged—alas!—defeated: and Logic, together with Rhetoric, fled in inexcusable terror.

Here I was alone and an Irus original: "Irus"; a reference to the beggar in Homer's Odyssey. In alchemical literature, being an "Irus" represents being stripped of all false theories and intellectual pride, standing "bankrupt" before nature.: deprived

of my own possessions, I rejected the unfair wealth of others:

I perceived help in no place in the world.

What plan, I ask, for such a desperate situation? I besought Heaven with the most humble prayers: labor by night and day, combined with persistent judgment, restlessly accompanied my restless heart. I despised worldly things: I purged my heart of philautia a Greek term for self-love or excessive conceit; and I held nothing more in my burning prayers than to love God above all, and to love my neighbor as myself.