Apprehension

Use in the book

A brief Stoic report predicates both assent and apprehension of every perception. A Hermetic passage describes the soul’s apprehension of what is truly good and true. The shared noun does not establish that the latter passage adopts the full Stoic account.

Places to read

1. I.50.14Every perception is called both assent and apprehension in a Stoic report.
2. I.41.1.3Apprehension of the good and true directs the embodied soul away from evil.
3. I.48.5.5Intellect’s apprehension is explained through its turning toward itself.

Translation in this edition

“Apprehension” keeps the term distinct from assent, perception, and knowledge. The accompanying definition or argument supplies the kind of grasp intended.

Use in the book

The innate-idea note pairs idea with apprehension of an unseen essence, but its opening negation is textually problematic and cannot safely establish a settled doctrine. The Kant criticism describes phrases and apprehensions as opaque and brown, suggesting that the density of constructed language can be mistaken for intellectual solidity. By contrast, Grand-Champ’s beautiful apprehensions receive the incomplete explanation “these views etc.” The period sentence-form is then criticized for expressing affections better than apprehensions and disguising the latter. This distinction gives the word a role in how form either discloses or obscures mental content.

Places to read

1. I, p. 266, entry 6, ¶1Apprehension is paired with idea in an unresolved negative construction.
2. I, p. 297, entry begun p. 296, no. 6, ¶3Opaque language can make apprehensions seem substantial.
3. II, p. 500, entry 11, ¶1Beautiful apprehensions are glossed as views in an unfinished explanation.
4. II, p. 703, entry 12, ¶1The rhetorical period disguises apprehensions while expressing affections.

Translation in this edition

The English translation retains apprehension and apprehensions in their intellectual senses. At I.266, the French lacks the restrictive que expected by a possible alternative reading; the English adopts a negative reading without emending it. Whether Joubert meant denial or restriction remains unresolved. The Kant assessment is Joubert’s criticism, not an externally verified account of Kantian terminology.

Use in the book

An object alone cannot ensure its enjoyment. People see the same things with different apprehensions and consequently inhabit very different worlds of value. The pure apprehensions of infancy provide a remembered instance of receiving created things before fashion has assigned them distorted meanings. Mature understanding must recover their truth rather than merely repeat a childhood feeling. IV.15 gives the practical test: a saw mistaken for a knife cannot be used well. Misunderstanding the world or one's soul is a more consequential version of that error. Apprehensions are the “cement” of soul and object because correct use and enjoyment depend on the relation they establish. Their superiority to objects in contemplative happiness does not mean the objects are unreal; it means their reality cannot enrich us through a false conception.

Places to read

1. III.1Infant apprehensions supply a remembered light in which the universe can still be seen.
2. III.68Different apprehensions explain why shared objects yield unequal understanding.
3. IV.15The misidentified tool demonstrates the dependence of use and happiness on right apprehension.

In this edition

“Pure and virgin apprehensions” means uncorrupted ways of conceiving, not fears about chastity. “Apprehend” likewise often means grasp intellectually.

Use in the book

Perception and intellectual grasp

The sensitive soul is divided into apprehending and moving powers. Through the former it receives and retains the sensory forms of things present or absent, as wax retains a seal’s impression. The outward senses and the inward powers of common sense, imagination and memory fall within this apprehensive side. The term is consequently broader than a sudden act of rational understanding. In the rational soul’s classification, apprehending is then understanding’s office, contrasted with the will’s moving office.

Strong apprehension is a supposed strength in the portrait of the Stoic sage. Burton reports the claim that virtue cannot be taken away because the sage’s grasp is secure, then mocks its promise of immunity to disturbance. The next paragraph allows, through Chrysippus, loss of virtue under drunkenness or melancholy. In the bodily symptom catalogue, excellent apprehensions have a different rhetorical role: they preserve powers of understanding alongside an outward appearance of dullness and inability to undertake business. Neither use means constant fearfulness.

The family also describes understanding in ordinary judgment. In an ironic Latin catalogue, “solennes ascendendi modos apprehendere” is learning the customary ways of rising in the world; the supposed wise person’s accommodation is measured against conscientious conduct. Later Burton allows that objections to compound medicines may arise from “the weaknesse of my apprehension,” then reverses the objections and defends compounds. The self-deprecating phrase names limited understanding, not anxious fear or a settled rejection of the remedies.

Receptivity, imagination and harmful impressions

A very apprehensive imagination is highly receptive. When it is also intent and violent, Burton says it sends more spirits to or from the heart; the resulting passions depend as well on the preparation of humours and bodily constitution. The causal subject is imagination, and receptivity alone is not the whole explanation. A strong apprehension or conceit can subsequently be credited with either causing illness or removing it. The following prediction stories describe people taking a diviner’s or physician’s words so much to heart that the forecast disease is said to follow. These are claims within Burton’s historical account of mind–body effects.

Apprehending need not guarantee that an external object exists. Reporting Mercatus, Burton says that people “apprehend and see outwardly, as they suppose” images which are not really there. The qualification belongs to the apparent outward seeing; the ensuing historical explanations place the images within eyes or brain and compare distorted vision through coloured glass.

In the erotic discussion, strong apprehension is paired with weak judgment. The strength is imaginative force, not reliable discrimination; the question attributed to Hercules de Saxonia asks how such people can resist when those conditions coincide. Its local setting is the supposed susceptibility fostered by solitude, abundance and idleness. The passage does not contradict the positive sense of excellent understanding elsewhere; it uses the family for a different mental capacity.

Awareness and susceptibility

The mockery chapter makes apprehensive explicitly relational: it names awareness of one’s foolishness. The following “and take it to heart” adds the emotional response, so the two conditions should not be compressed into the adjective alone. Someone who both notices and feels the humiliation suffers differently from someone who does not perceive the joke. In the remedy against destructive company, the apprehensive person is especially sensitive to what is happening. Burton recommends removing him promptly; if he does not recognize the situation, friends should supply the judgment he lacks. Awareness and emotional vulnerability overlap here, without becoming exact synonyms.

The phrase outward apprehension reverses the point of view. It is the observer’s perception of another person’s condition, and Burton stresses its limits: what is barely detectable outwardly can be intolerable to the person experiencing it. Later, in the discussion of despair, less apprehensive does have the familiar fearful sense. It belongs to a comparative generalization about younger people, contrasted with timid and devout older sufferers, not a universal rule about age.

Embracing, believing and being seized

Charity is all apprehending in the sense of all-embracing, an extension beyond the narrowly perceptual vocabulary. Religious mysteries are apprehended by faith: grasped or accepted through belief in Burton’s defence of Christian doctrine. A very different passive occurs in the account of guilty fear: people not yet apprehended fear arrest and may give themselves away.

The Latin family makes the physical and figurative extensions especially clear. Cupid boasts in an original marginal quotation that he “apprehendi jubas,” seized the lions’ manes. In the Lysistrata passage, a woman’s brief opportunity for marriage is what she must seize: “etsi hoc non apprehenderit.” The latter belongs to the quoted social judgment and its neighbouring rose-and-time imagery.

The election passage likewise prints a passive: all are invited, but only the elect are apprehended, taken hold of. Changing it to only the elect apprehend or accept would reverse the grammatical direction. Burton immediately forbids identifying oneself or another as finally rejected, because the invitation is universal and the time of reception is unknown. Both the passive wording and the limiting practical conclusion belong to the reading.

Related entries

Imagination; Intellect; Judgment; Wit; Conceit; Common sense; Species in perception; Memory and recollection; Fear; Religious melancholy; Shame (future article)

Places to read

1. · paragraph 13–15apprehendere as learning customary routes to advancement, within an ironic catalogue
2. · paragraph 2secure intellectual grasp attributed to the Stoic sage, mocked and qualified in Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–3
3. · paragraph 3perception distinguished from movement; read Subsection 6. The sensitive soul · paragraphs 2–4 for the sensory classification
4. · paragraph 23rational apprehension as understanding’s office; full context Subsection 9. The Rational Soul · paragraphs 23–27
5. · paragraph 3receptive imagination in a conditional bodily account; read Member 3 Subsection 1 Passions and disturbances of the mind and how they cause… · paragraphs 2–4
6. · paragraph 21strong mental impressions and two-way bodily effects; read Subsection 2. The power of imagination · paragraphs 20–23
7. · paragraph 40recognizing and taking mockery to heart; context SUBSECTION 4 How mockery, slander and bitter jokes cause melancholy · paragraphs 39–41
8. · paragraph 13excellent understanding alongside outward heaviness and incapacity
9. · paragraph 8observers’ limited perception of intense inward suffering; continue through Subsection 4 Symptoms arising from education, custom, duration, our… · paragraph 9
10. · paragraph 17–19apprehend as perception of allegedly nonexistent outward images; internal explanations and coloured-glass comparison
11. · paragraph 16sensitivity to mistreatment and friends’ duty to intervene; read Subsection 2 Help from friends through counsel and comfort gentle and harsh… · paragraphs 15–17
12. · paragraph 12–16weakness of apprehension and Burton’s reversal from objections to defence of compound medicines
13. · paragraph 34all-embracing charity; read MEMBER 3 Charity combining all three kinds of love Pleasant profitable and… · paragraphs 33–35
14. · paragraph 38–40Cupid physically seizes lions’ manes, apprehendi jubas
15. · paragraph 42powerful imagination with weak judgment; read Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of heroic love: bodily temperament, plentiful… · paragraphs 41–43
16. unnumbered scan leaf PDF688apprehenderit as seizing a brief marriage opportunity in the Lysistrata passage
17. · paragraph 23mysteries apprehended through faith; full context General symptoms: love of their own sect; hatred of all other religions… · paragraphs 23–26
18. · paragraph 19comparative susceptibility to religious fear; read Causes of despair: the devil, melancholy, meditation, distrust, weakness of… · paragraphs 18–20
19. · paragraph 32apprehended as arrested, within the guilty-conscience sequence Symptoms of despair: fear, sorrow, suspicion, anxiety, horror of conscience… · paragraphs 31–33
20. passive reception of the elect and prohibition on condemning people; continue through Treatment of despair through medicine, good counsel, consolation, and so on · paragraph 21

In this edition

The same original phrase has different local renderings: “strong apprehension” becomes “firmness of his understanding” in the Stoic portrait and “powerful imagination” in the erotic account. “Excellent apprehensions” becomes “excellent powers of understanding.” “Apprehensive” becomes “sensitive to what is happening” in the hostile-company passage, while “less apprehensive” remains unchanged where susceptibility to religious fear is meant. These are distinctions required by their objects and arguments.

In the faculty account, “Apprehending or Moving” becomes “perception and movement,” while “Apprehensive power” becomes “perceptive power.” “Apprehended” becomes “arrested” and “taken hold of”. The latter wording preserves a passive construction whose agent is not explicitly named in the short clause. “All apprehending” becomes “all-embracing,” a distinct phrase about charity.

The original Latin “apprehendi jubas” is rendered “seized their manes” in the marginal annotation’s editorial translation; the modern body separately follows Burton’s English “hold them by the mane.” “Etsi hoc non apprehenderit” becomes “if she fails to seize it,” with “it” referring to the preceding marriage opportunity. The latter passage is on an unnumbered scan leaf labelled PDF688, not a securely printed page 688.

all apprehending

Printed “all apprehending” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

All-embracing or comprehensive in its reach, describing charity.

Context: Burton presents Christian charity as the love that gives other acts their worth.

Source: original body

Source wording: an all apprehending love

apprehend · Apprehending

Printed “Apprehending” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Perceiving or mentally taking in sensory forms, distinguished from moving.

Context: Burton divides the sensitive soul’s functions; reception and retention are compared with wax receiving a seal.

Source: original body

Source wording: Apprehending or Moving

apprehend · apprehending

Printed “apprehending” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Grasping or knowing as the cognitive office of rational understanding.

Context: Understanding is contrasted with will as moving; the two differ in office, not essence.

Source: original body

Source wording: the Rational power apprehending

apprehend · local use 1

Printed “apprehend” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Take a prediction deeply to heart or strongly conceive it.

Context: The subject receives a prediction from a diviner or physician; ensuing illness is reported as an effect of fearful expectation.

Source: original body

Source wording: they will so seriously apprehend it

apprehend · apprehended · local use 1

Printed “apprehended” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Grasped or accepted by faith.

Context: Burton defends the mysteries of true religion; this precedes the distinction between reasons for belief and certain demonstration.

Source: original body

Source wording: many mysteries are so apprehended alone by faith

apprehend · apprehended · local use 2

Printed “apprehended” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Arrested or taken into custody.

Context: Passive participle: the fearful persons are potential objects of arrest, not agents understanding something.

Source: original body

Source wording: if they be not yet apprehended

apprehend · apprehended · local use 3

Printed “apprehended” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Taken hold of, in the theological statement about the elect.

Context: The elect are grammatically passive; the text does not say only they accept. The continuation forbids deciding who is rejected.

Source: original body

Source wording: all are invited, but onely the elect apprehended

apprehend · local use 2

Printed “apprehend” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Perceive, here apparently perceiving images which the account says do not exist externally.

Context: Burton reports Mercatus’s explanation and continues with Galen and Boissardus. As they suppose qualifies outward seeing; the account relocates the images between eyes and brain rather than establishing their external reality.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: they apprehend and see outwardly, as they suppose, divers images, which indeed are not

Modern rendering, Modern wording: them to perceive and seemingly see outside themselves various images that do not in fact exist

Alignment convention

Alignment scope: The original finite subject-and-predicate is recast as an accusative-plus-infinitive complement to modern cause; seemingly conveys as they suppose. The complete perception construction, not the isolated verb, is aligned.

apprehendere

Printed “apprehendere” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Learn or grasp, here the customary means of advancement.

Context: Burton ironically describes the opportunistic accomplishments society admires, against conscientious conduct. The source of the Latin catalogue is unlocated; it is not safely assigned to another author.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: solennes ascendendi modos apprehendere

Modern rendering, Modern wording: learn the customary ways of rising

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

apprehendere · apprehendi

Printed “apprehendi” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Seized or took hold of, physically.

Context: First-person perfect in Cupid’s boast to Venus, quoted from Lucian in the original Latin margin. Cupid seizes the lions’ manes; the modern wording is the editorial translation of that margin, not the modern body’s separate holds them by the mane.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: apprehendi jubas

Modern rendering, Modern wording: seized their manes

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Edition note: independently checked against supplied marginal quotation and its editorial translation, not the modern body

Supplied or implicit wording: English their makes explicit the possessive relation supplied by the lions in the Latin context.

apprehendere · apprehenderit

Printed “apprehenderit” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Seize or make use of an opportunity.

Context: In the Latin Lysistrata passage attributed to Andreas Divus’s translation, the woman is the conditional agent and hoc refers to the preceding brief marriage opportunity. This is a reported social judgment about marriageability, not an assertion of biological incapacity.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: etsi hoc non apprehenderit

Modern rendering, Modern wording: if she fails to seize it

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

apprehension · local use 1

Printed “apprehension” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

A forceful mental impression credited with bodily effects.

Context: Burton invokes Valesius for possible relief, then describes fear-associated illness; these are historical causal claims.

Source: original body

Source wording: a strong conceit or apprehension

apprehension · local use 2

Printed “apprehension” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Understanding or judgment, here the writer’s own fallible comprehension.

Context: Burton tentatively allows that he may conceive the preceding objections through weak understanding, then abruptly rejects them and defends compound medicines; the self-qualification does not settle the debate against compounds.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: thus I may conceive out of the weaknesse of my apprehension

Modern rendering, Modern wording: the conclusions I may draw through the weakness of my understanding

Alignment convention

Alignment scope: The modern version nominalizes thus I may conceive as the conclusions I may draw and places it under the preceding These are; the modal may and limited understanding remain explicit.

apprehensive · Apprehensive

Printed “Apprehensive” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Capable of receiving and retaining sensory representations.

Context: The construction describes a sensory faculty, not an anxious temperament.

Source: original body

Source wording: By the Apprehensive power

apprehensive · local use 1

Printed “apprehensive” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Receptive or susceptible to an impression.

Context: The conditional joins receptivity with intentness and force; bodily constitution also conditions duration and strength of passions.

Source: original body

Source wording: If the Imagination be very apprehensive, intent, and violent

apprehensive · local use 2

Printed “apprehensive” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Aware of one’s foolishness.

Context: The adjective names awareness of his folly. The coordinated condition and take it to heart separately supplies the emotional response; both conditions contrast with someone who does not notice the mockery.

Source: original body

Source wording: if he be apprehensive of his folly, and take it to heart

apprehensive · local use 3

Printed “apprehensive” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Aware of and sensitive to being mistreated by companions.

Context: Burton recommends escape from hostile company; if the person does not recognize it, friends should arrange protection.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.

Source wording: especially if he be apprehensive

apprehensive · local use 4

Printed “apprehensive” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Susceptible to religious fear or anxious concern.

Context: A comparative in Burton’s reported age-and-occupation generalization, not a universal claim about young or old people.

Source: original body

Source wording: young men and middle age are more wild, and less apprehensive

excellent apprehensions

Printed “excellent apprehensions” (English; phrase).

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording: excellent apprehensions

Citation convention

Strong powers of understanding.

Context: Burton preserves intellectual capacity despite outward heaviness and difficulty undertaking business.

Source: original body

outward apprehension

Printed “outward apprehension” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

What other people can discern by observation.

Context: Others are observers; the sufferer’s intolerable burden may be externally hard to detect.

Source: original body

Source wording: to the outward apprehension of others

strong apprehension · local use 1

Printed “strong apprehension” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Secure intellectual grasp, invoked to explain the Stoic sage’s supposedly inalienable virtue.

Context: Burton reports Zeno’s claim and immediately mocks it; Chrysippus supplies a contrary qualification next.

Source: original body

Source wording: by reason of strong apprehension

strong apprehension · local use 2

Printed “strong apprehension” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Powerful imaginative conception which can coexist with weak judgment.

Context: Hercules de Saxonia’s rhetorical question explains susceptibility to erotic love within an account of luxurious idleness.

Source: original body

Source wording: if a weak judgement and a strong apprehension do concurr