A notable letter from Joseph Addison To Bishop Hough (from December 1700).

In Part VII of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments we find an interesting analogy developed between Stoicism and certain views of sportsmanship.

The seventy-seventh History Carnival is up at "Airminded" (and cross-posted at Cliopatria).

The fiftieth carnivalesque, an early modern edition of the blog carnival, is up at "Mercurius Politicus".

The EconTalk Book Club is currently reading through Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments. They have podcasts, complete with outlines and suggested readings.

(Cross-posted from blog.kennypearce.net)

I recently came across early modern poet Sir John Davies's poems on the immortality of the soul, in his Nosce Teipsum. It is an interesting example of early modern philosophical argument in verse form, so I thought I would provide a sample.

When we last saw Boswell he was leaving Rousseau, intending at some point to visit the other great French luminary, Voltaire. On Monday, December 24, Boswell took a coach to Ferney, Voltaire's residence. When Boswell arrived, Voltaire was still in bed, so he had to wait until Voltaire finally rose and came down in his dressing gown. They talked some small talk -- Scotland, painting, Lord Kames's aesthetic theories, Hume (whom Voltaire called "a true philosopher"), and so forth. While Boswell dined that night at Ferney, with a number of Voltaire's guests, Voltaire did not attend the dinner, which was instead presided over by his niece, Madame Denis. Dinner conversation seems to have been lively, although Boswell seems at one point to have become exasperated over a number of snide comments made about Rousseau.

Carnivalesque no. 48, an early modern edition, is up at Wynken de Worde. I highly recommend the History Matters roundtable discussion.

Apologies for lack of posting of late; I've been surprisingly busy.

Having found a clever way to get around Rousseau's reticence, Boswell returned on December 14 to try once again to gather moral advice from Rousseau: