DR. SEWARD'S DIARY (Kept in phonograph)
25 May.--Ebb tide in appetite today. Cannot eat, cannot rest, so diary instead. since my rebuff of yesterday I have a sort of empty feeling. Nothing in the world seems of sufficient importance to be worth the doing. As I knew that the only cure for this sort of thing was work, I went amongst the patients. I picked out one who has afforded me a study of much interest. He is so quaint that I am determined to understand him as well as I can. Today I seemed to get nearer than ever before to the heart of his mystery.
I questioned him more fully than I had ever done, with a view to making myself master of the facts of his hallucination. In my manner of doing it there was, I now see, something of cruelty. I seemed to wish to keep him to the point of his madness, a thing which I avoid with the patients as I would the mouth of hell.
(Mem., Under what circumstances would I not avoid the pit of hell?) Omnia Romae venalia sunt. Hell has its price! If there be anything behind this instinct it will be valuable to trace it afterwards accurately, so I had better commence to do so, therefore. . .
R. M, Renfield, age 59. Sanguine temperament, great physical strength, morbidly excitable, periods of gloom, ending in some fixed idea which I cannot make out. I presume that the sanguine temperament itself and the disturbing influence end in a mentally-accomplished finish, a possibly dangerous man, probably dangerous if unselfish. In selfish men caution is as secure an armour for their foes as for themselves. What I think of on this point is, when self is the fixed point the centripetal force is balanced with the centrifugal. When duty, a cause, etc., is the fixed point, the latter force is paramount, and only accident of a series of accidents can balance it.
“In selfish men caution is as secure an armour for their foes as for themselves. What I think of on this point is, when self is the fixed point the centripetal force is balanced with the centrifugal; when duty, a cause, etc., is the fixed point, the latter force is paramount, and only accident or a series of accidents can balance it.”
What, exactly, is Seward trying to say here? I think he is using “accident” in a philosophical sense, to mean “circumstances”.
https://aquinasonline.com/substance-and-accident/
So I would paraphrase this musing as:
“When someone is primarily driven by self-interest, concern for their own safety and well-being keeps them from extreme acts that may have negative affects on themselves. When someone is driven by an ideal, they do not fear for themselves, so the only thing constraining their actions is external circumstances.”
Renfield, we later learn, wants to consume insects, animals (sparrows, kittens, and cats), and human blood in order to become like a god. So that is self-interest. Jonathan and his fellow vampire hunters pursue the Count all the way back to Transylvania in order to save Mina. In this selfless pursuit, they spend a great deal of money and also risk their reputations, their freedom, and even their lives.
Posted by: Most Significant | May 25, 2022 at 07:54 PM