work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
7408,"",Reading,2013-06-11 14:23:34 UTC,"And chase we still the phantom through the fire,
O'er bog, and brake, and precipice, till death?
And toil we still for sublunary pay,
Defy the dangers of the field and flood?
Or, spider-like, spin out our precious all,
Our more than vitals spin (if no regard
To great futurity) in curious webs
Of subtle thought, and exquisite design,
(Fine net-work of the brain!) to catch a fly,
The momentary buzz of vain renown,
A name, a mortal immortality?
(ll. 204-214, p. 154 in CUP edition)",,20512,"","""Or, spider-like, spin out our precious all, / Our more than vitals spin (if no regard / To great futurity) in curious webs / Of subtle thought, and exquisite design, / (Fine net-work of the brain!) to catch a fly, / The momentary buzz of vain renown, / A name, a mortal immortality?""",Animals,2013-06-11 14:23:34 UTC,Night the Sixth
7408,"",Reading,2013-06-11 21:19:21 UTC,"With this minute distinction, emblems just,--
Nature revolves, but man advances: both
Eternal; that a circle, this a line;
That gravitates, this soars. The aspiring Soul,
Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends;
Zeal and Humility her wings to heaven.
The world of matter, with its various forms,
All dies into new life. Life, born from Death,
Rolls the vast mass, and shall for ever roll.
No single atom, once in being, lost,
With change of counsel charges the Most High.
(ll. 690-700, p. 166 in CUP edition)",,20528,"","""The aspiring Soul, / Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends; / Zeal and Humility her wings to heaven.""",Animals,2013-06-11 21:19:21 UTC,Night the Sixth
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 16:05:56 UTC,"Ye gentle theologues of calmer kind!
Whose constitution dictates to your pen,
Who, cold yourselves, think ardour comes from hell!
Think not our passions from Corruption sprung,
Though to Corruption now they lend their wings;
That is their mistress, not their mother. All
(And justly) Reason deem Divine: I see,
I feel a grandeur in the Passions too,
Which speaks their high descent, and glorious end;
Which speaks them rays of an eternal fire.
In Paradise itself they burnt as strong,
Ere Adam fell, though wiser in their aim.
Like the proud Eastern, struck by Providence,
What, though our passions are run mad, and stoop,
With low terrestrial appetite, to graze
On trash, on toys, dethroned from high desire?
Yet still, through their disgrace, no feeble ray
Of greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell:
But these (like that fallen monarch when reclaim'd)
When Reason moderates the rein aright,
Shall re-ascend, remount their former sphere,
Where once they soar'd illustrious; ere seduced,
By wanton Eve 's debauch, to stroll on earth,
And set the sublunary world on fire.
(ll. 521-544, p. 192 in CUP edition)",,20571,"","""Yet still, through their disgrace [the passions'], no feeble ray / Of greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell: / But these (like that fallen monarch [Adam] when reclaim'd) / When Reason moderates the rein aright, / Shall re-ascend, remount their former sphere, / Where once they soar'd illustrious; ere seduced, / By wanton Eve 's debauch, to stroll on earth, / And set the sublunary world on fire.""",Animals,2013-06-12 16:05:56 UTC,Night the Seventh
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 19:17:09 UTC,"""Duty! Religion!--These, our duty done,
""Imply reward. Religion is mistake.
""Duty!--There's none, but to repel the cheat.
""Ye cheats, away! ye daughters of my Pride!
""Who feign yourselves the favourites of the Skies:
""Ye towering hopes, abortive energies!
""That toss and struggle in my lying breast,
""To scale the skies, and build presumptions there,
""As I were heir of an eternity.
""Vain, vain ambitions! trouble me no more.
""Why travel far in quest of sure defeat?
""As bounded as my being, be my wish.
""All is inverted, Wisdom is a fool.
""Sense! take the rein; blind Passion! drive us on;
""And, Ignorance! befriend us on our way;
""Ye new, but truest patrons of our peace!
""Yes; give the Pulse full empire; live the Brute,
""Since as the Brute we die. The sum of man,
""Of godlike man, to revel and to rot!
(ll. 716-734, p. 197 in CUP edition)",,20578,"","""Sense! take the rein; blind Passion! drive us on; / And, Ignorance! befriend us on our way; / Ye new, but truest patrons of our peace! Yes; give the Pulse full empire; live the Brute, / Since as the Brute we die.""",Animals and Empire,2013-06-12 19:17:09 UTC,Night the Seventh
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 19:20:01 UTC,"If so, what words are dark enough to draw
Thy picture true? The darkest are too fair.
Beneath what baleful planet, in what hour
Of desperation, by what Fury's aid,
In what infernal posture of the soul,
All hell invited, and all hell in joy
At such a birth, a birth so near of kin,
Did thy foul fancy whelp so black a scheme
Of hopes abortive, faculties half-blown,
And deities begun, reduced to dust?
(ll. 894-903, pp. 201-2 in CUP edition)",,20580,"","""Beneath what baleful planet, in what hour / Of desperation, by what Fury's aid, / In what infernal posture of the soul, / All hell invited, and all hell in joy / At such a birth, a birth so near of kin, / Did thy foul fancy whelp so black a scheme / Of hopes abortive, faculties half-blown, / And deities begun, reduced to dust?""",Animals,2013-06-12 19:20:01 UTC,Night the Seventh
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 19:21:16 UTC,"An all-prolific, all-preserving God!
This were a God indeed.--And such is man,
As here presumed: he rises from his fall.
Think'st thou Omnipotence a naked root,
Each blossom fair of Deity destroy'd?
Nothing is dead; nay, nothing sleeps; each soul
That ever animated human clay
Now wakes, is on the wing; and where, O where,
Will the swarm settle?--When the trumpet's call,
As sounding brass, collects us round Heaven's throne,
Conglobed we bask in everlasting day,
(Paternal splendour!) and adhere for ever.
Had not the soul this outlet to the skies,
In this vast vessel of the universe,
How should we gasp, as in an empty void!
How in the pangs of famish'd Hope expire!
(ll. 931-946, pp. 202-3)",,20581,"","""Nothing is dead; nay, nothing sleeps; each soul / That ever animated human clay / Now wakes, is on the wing; and where, O where, / Will the swarm settle?""",Animals,2013-06-12 19:21:16 UTC,Night the Seventh
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 19:25:58 UTC,"Is it in words to paint you? O ye fallen!
Fallen from the wings of Reason, and of Hope!
Erect in stature, prone in appetite!
Patrons of pleasure, posting into pain!
Lovers of argument, averse to sense!
Boasters of liberty, fast bound in chains!
Lords of the wide creation, and the shame!
More senseless than the irrationals you scorn!
More base than those you rule! than those you pity,
Far more undone! O ye most infamous
Of beings, from superior dignity!
Deepest in woe, from means of boundless bliss!
Ye cursed by blessings infinite! because
Most highly favour'd, most profoundly lost!
Ye motley mass of contradictions strong!
And are you, too, convinced your souls fly off
In exhalation soft, and die in air,
From the full flood of evidence against you?
In the coarse drudgeries and sinks of Sense,
Your souls have quite worn out the make of Heaven,
By vice new-cast, and creatures of your own:
But though you can deform, you can't destroy;
To curse, not uncreate, is all your power.
(ll. 1195-1217, pp. 209-10 in CUP edition)",,20585,"","""Is it in words to paint you? O ye fallen! / Fallen from the wings of Reason, and of Hope!""",Animals,2013-06-12 19:25:58 UTC,Night the Seventh
7665,"",Reading,2013-09-02 03:22:17 UTC,"Imagination is the Paphian shop,
Where feeble Happiness, like Vulcan, lame,
Bids foul Ideas, in their dark recess,
And hot as hell, (which kindled the black fires,)
With wanton art, those fatal arrows form
Which murder all thy time, health, wealth, and fame.
Wouldst thou receive them, other Thoughts there are,
On angel-wing, descending from above,
Which these, with art Divine, would counterwork,
And form celestial armour for thy peace.
(p. 175, ll. 994-1003)",,22641,"","""Wouldst thou receive them, other Thoughts there are, / On angel-wing, descending from above, / Which these, with art Divine, would counterwork, / And form celestial armour for thy peace.""<",Metal,2013-09-02 03:22:17 UTC,Night the Eighth
7665,"",Simile,2013-09-02 03:28:00 UTC,"He follows nature, (not like thee!) and shows us
An uninverted system of a man.
His appetite wears Reason's golden chain,
And finds in due restraint its luxury.
His passion, like an eagle well reclaim'd,
Is taught to fly at nought but infinite.
Patient his hope, unanxious is his care,
His caution fearless, and his grief (if grief
The gods ordain) a stranger to despair.
And why?--Because affection, more than meet,
His wisdom leaves not disengaged from Heaven.
Those secondary goods that smile on earth,
He, loving in proportion, loves in peace.
They most the world enjoy, who least admire.
His understanding 'scapes the common cloud
Of fumes arising from a boiling breast.
His head is clear, because his heart is cool,
By worldly competitions uninflamed.
The moderate movements of his soul admit
Distinct ideas, and matured debate,
An eye impartial, and an even scale:
Whence judgment sound, and unrepenting choice.
Thus, in a double sense, the good are wise;
On its own dunghill, wiser than the world.
What then the world? It must be doubly weak;
Strange truth! as soon would they believe the Creed.
(p. 179, ll. 1160-85)",,22645,"","""His passion, like an eagle well reclaim'd, / Is taught to fly at nought but infinite.""",Animals,2013-09-02 03:28:00 UTC,Night the Eighth
7942,"",Reading in British Library; cited in Wesley's Natural History (70).,2014-06-20 18:29:55 UTC,"Which shall We most admire? The Multitude of animated Organs; their finished Form, and their faultless Order?--Or, the Power and Sway which the Soul exercises over them! Ten thousand Reins put into her Hands; yet she manages all, conducts all, without the least Perplexity or the least Irregularity: rather, with a Promptitude, a Consistency, and a Speed, that nothing else can equal!
(II, p. 189)",,24067,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY.,"""Or, the Power and Sway which the Soul exercises over them! Ten thousand Reins put into her Hands; yet she manages all, conducts all, without the least Perplexity or the least Irregularity: rather, with a Promptitude, a Consistency, and a Speed, that nothing else can equal!""",Animals,2014-06-20 18:29:55 UTC,Dialogue XII