theme,metaphor,work_id,dictionary,provenance,id,created_at,updated_at,reviewed_on,comments,text,context
"","""The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe from the imagination and warm sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring.""",5775,"",Reading,15402,2009-09-14 19:43:33 UTC,2012-01-23 16:57:32 UTC,,"","[...] Like the lightning's flash are many recollections; one idea assimilating and explaining another, with astonishing rapidity. I do not now allude to taht quick perception of truth, which is so intuitive that it baffles research, and makes us at a loss to determine whether it is reminiscence or ratiocination, lost sight of in its celerity, that opens the dark cloud. Over those instantaneous associations we have little power; for when the mind is once enlarged by excursive flights, or profound reflection, the raw materials will, in some degree, arrange themselves. The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe from the imagination and warm sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring. Over this subtile electric fluid, how little power do we possess, and over it how little power can reason obtain. These fine intractable spirits appear to be the essence of genius, and beaming its eagle eye, produce in the most eminent degree the happy energy of associating thoughts that surprise, delight, and instruct. These are the glowing minds that concentrate pictures for their fellow creatures; forcing them to view with interest the objects reflected from the impassioned imagination, which they passed over in nature.
(p. 113-114)",Chapter VI
Blank Slate,"""For any kind of reading, I think better than leaving a blank still blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers.""",5775,Writing,Reading,15416,2009-09-14 19:43:35 UTC,2014-10-05 16:34:02 UTC,2003-10-23,"","Yet, when I exclaim against novels, I mean when contrasted with those works which exercise the understanding and regulate the imagination. For any kind of reading, I think better than leaving a blank still blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers; besides, even the productions that are only addressed to the imagination, raise the reader a little above the gross gratification of appetites, to which the mind has not given a shade of delicacy.
(p. 191; cf. p. 427 in 1792 ed.)",""
"","""Such is the natural imbecility of the human mind, it confines us to the immediate scenes in which we are engaged, and as new objects present the past is in a degree erased from recollection.""",6825,Writing,Reading in Google Books,18305,2011-04-18 02:43:04 UTC,2011-04-18 02:43:04 UTC,,"","Encompassed by innumerable cares and anxieties, it was never intended we should take any further share in the troubles of those around, than was sufficient, if in our power to relieve their distress. It certainly would be a great addition to the miseries of life, should we suffer ourselves to be made wretched by every desponding gloomy disposition, our pity is indeed excited, we lament their weakness, and urge the necessity of fortitude. Such is the natural imbecility of the human mind, it confines us to the immediate scenes in which we are engaged, and as new objects present the past is in a degree erased from recollection. This indeed is wisely ordered.
(pp. 45-6)",Letter VI
"","""Edgar, touched by a comparison to the person he most honoured, gratefully looked his acknowledgment; and all displeasure at her flight, even from Thomson's scene of conjugal felicity, was erased from his mind.""",7335,Writing,"Searching ""mind"" in C-H Lion",20027,2013-03-22 20:37:20 UTC,2013-03-22 20:37:20 UTC,,"","Edgar, touched by a comparison to the person he most honoured, gratefully looked his acknowledgment; and all displeasure at her flight, even from Thomson's scene of conjugal felicity, was erased from his mind.
(I.ii.5, p. 245)",Chapter 5. A Raffle
"","""I then--alas, too late! dived deeper, with, then, useless investigation,--and discovered an early passion, never erased from her mind;--discovered--that I had never made her happy! that she was merely enduring, suffering me--while my whole confiding soul was undividedly hers!""",7335,Writing,"Searching ""mind"" in C-H Lion",20218,2013-05-29 15:54:53 UTC,2013-05-29 15:54:53 UTC,,"","""Nor was it till the moment--heart-breaking yet to my recollection!--of her sudden death, that I knew the lifeless, soulless, inanimate frame was all she had bestowed upon me. In the private drawer of her bureau, I then found a pocket-book. In the first leaf, I saw a gentleman's name;--I turned over, and saw it again; I looked further, and still it met my view; I opened by chance,--but nothing else appeared:--there it was still, traced in every hand, charactered in every form, shape, and manner, the wayward, wistful eye could delight to fashion, for varying, yet beholding it without end: while, over the intermediate spaces, verses, quotations, short but affecting sentences, were every where scattered, bewailing the misery of disappointed hope, and unrequited love; of a heartless hand devoted at the altar; of vows enchaining liberty, not sactifying affection! I then--alas, too late! dived deeper, with, then, useless investigation,--and discovered an early passion, never erased from her mind;--discovered--that I had never made her happy! that she was merely enduring, suffering me--while my whole confiding soul was undividedly hers!""--
(IV.viii.6, pp. 307-8; p. 643 in OUP edition)","Volume IV, Book VIII, Chapter VI. Ideas upon Marriage."
"","He was allowed to do so, and read it till every word was imprinted on his memory; and after enjoying the sad luxury of holding it that night on his bosom, was forced the next morning to relinquish his treasure.""",7542,Impressions and Writing,Reading; text from Google Books,21701,2013-07-12 14:59:04 UTC,2013-07-12 14:59:04 UTC,,"","You, my dear friend, who have felt the tender attachments of love and friendship, and the painful anxieties which absence occasions, even amidst scenes of variety and pleasure; who understand the value at which tidings from those we love is computed in the arithmetic of the heart; who have heard with almost uncontroulable emotion the postman's rap at the door; have trembling seen the well-known hand which excited sensations that almost deprived you of power to break the seal which seemed the talisman of happiness; you can judge of the feelings of Mons. du F when he received, by means of the same friend who had conveyed his letter, an answer from his wife. But the person who brought the letter to his dungeon, dreading the risk of a discovery, insisted, that, after having read it, he should return it to him immediately. Mons. du F-- pressed the letter to his heart, bathed it with his tears, and implored the indulgence of keeping it at least till the next morning. He was allowed to do so, and read it till every word was imprinted on his memory; and after enjoying the sad luxury of holding it that night on his bosom, was forced the next morning to relinquish his treasure.
(Letter XX, p. 163-4; p. 129 in Broadview ed.)",""