Solitude [ Feelings & Emotions ]
… often associated with melancholy and thus frequently employed in a negative sense. A range of eighteenth-century writers warned about the effects of social isolation on spiritual, physical, and mental wellbeing. Yet, for all its challenges, … but the ‘pride and self-ignorance’ of those willing to elevate themselves above the conversation of others. Baxter warned that ‘many are led into solitude by their infirmities or vices’, noting that ‘popish vanity may seduce them ... … life. A familiar account to many readers of didactic literature from this period was that of Diogenes of Sinope, who warned a young man walking alone and ‘discoursing with himself’ to ‘ Take Heed ... that thou Converse not with thine …
Conversation | Emotions | Gender | Melancholy | Politeness | Privacy | Religion
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