Both Uses of
indulgent
in
Utopia, by Thomas More
- The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas, on the contrary, it is their opinion that Nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless.†
*
- They seem, indeed, more inclinable to that opinion that places, if not the whole, yet the chief part, of a man's happiness in pleasure; and, what may seem more strange, they make use of arguments even from religion, notwithstanding its severity and roughness, for the support of that opinion so indulgent to pleasure; for they never dispute concerning happiness without fetching some arguments from the principles of religion as well as from natural reason, since without the former they reckon that all our inquiries after happiness must be but conjectural and defective.†
Definitions:
-
(1)
(indulgent) to treat with extra kindness or tolerance
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In the form, indulgence, the word can also refer to a special pleasure--typically something done in excess of what is thought good--such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy