Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks
antiseptic
salt.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
, _Spanish Curate_:
--this soul I speake of,
Or rather salt, to keep this heap of flesh
From being a walking stench.
W. furnishes a Latin parallel: 'Sus vero quid habet praeter escam?
cui quidem, ne putresceret, animam ipsam pro sale datam dicit esse
Chrysippus. '--Cic. _De Natura Deor_, lib. 2.
It is to these passages that Carlyle refers in his _Past and
Present_: 'A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us,
is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the
frightfulest sort; to 'save us,' says he, 'the expense of salt. '
Bk. 2, Ch. 2.
'In our and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the _soul_ out of
him; and now, after the due period,--begins to find the want of
it. . . .
Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt. '
(Simpson in _N. & Q. _, 9th Ser. 4. 347, 423. )
To the same Latin source Professor Cook (_Mod. Lang. Notes_,
Feb. , 1905) attributes the passage in _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ 43-45:
What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
and Samuel Johnson's 'famous sentence recorded by Boswell under June
19, 1784: "Talking of the comedy of _The Rehearsal_, he said: 'It has
not wit enough to keep it sweet. '"'
=1. 6. 97 the walks of Lincolnes Inne. = One of the famous Inns
of Court (note 3. 1.
--this soul I speake of,
Or rather salt, to keep this heap of flesh
From being a walking stench.
W. furnishes a Latin parallel: 'Sus vero quid habet praeter escam?
cui quidem, ne putresceret, animam ipsam pro sale datam dicit esse
Chrysippus. '--Cic. _De Natura Deor_, lib. 2.
It is to these passages that Carlyle refers in his _Past and
Present_: 'A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us,
is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the
frightfulest sort; to 'save us,' says he, 'the expense of salt. '
Bk. 2, Ch. 2.
'In our and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the _soul_ out of
him; and now, after the due period,--begins to find the want of
it. . . .
Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt. '
(Simpson in _N. & Q. _, 9th Ser. 4. 347, 423. )
To the same Latin source Professor Cook (_Mod. Lang. Notes_,
Feb. , 1905) attributes the passage in _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ 43-45:
What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
and Samuel Johnson's 'famous sentence recorded by Boswell under June
19, 1784: "Talking of the comedy of _The Rehearsal_, he said: 'It has
not wit enough to keep it sweet. '"'
=1. 6. 97 the walks of Lincolnes Inne. = One of the famous Inns
of Court (note 3. 1.
