Institutes 2.2.14 — MAN NOW DEPRIVED OF FREEDOM OF WILL, AND MISERABLY ENSLAVED.

**MAN NOW DEPRIVED OF FREEDOM OF WILL, AND MISERABLY ENSLAVED.**

Next come manual and liberal arts, in learning which, as all have some degree of aptitude, the full force of human acuteness is displayed. But though all are not equally able to learn all the arts, we have sufficient evidence of a common capacity in the fact, that there is scarcely an individual who does not display intelligence in some particular art. And this capacity extends not merely to the learning of the art, but to the devising of something new, or the improving of what had been previously learned. This led Plato to adopt the erroneous idea, that such knowledge was nothing but recollection. The French adds, “de ce que l’ame savoit avant qu’etre mis dedlans le corps;”—of what the soul knew before it was placed within the body.

Source

• source-manifest/institutes — Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Beveridge 1845 (PD)
• evidence_grade: D_doctrinal_textbook