work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4136,Soliloquy,Reading,2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,"Go to the poets, and they will present you with many instances. Nothing is more common with them than this sort of soliloquy. A person of profound parts, or perhaps of ordinary capacity, happens on some occasion to commit a fault. He is concerned for it. He comes alone upon the stage, looks about him to see if anybody be near, then takes himself to task without sparing himself in the least. You would wonder to hear how close he pushes matters and how thoroughly he carries on the business of self-dissection. By virtue of this soliloquy, he becomes two distinct persons. He is pupil and preceptor. He teaches and he learns. And, in good earnest, had I nothing else to plead in behalf of the morals of our modern dramatic poets, I should defend them still against their accusers for the sake of this very practice, which they have taken care to keep up in its full force. For whether the practice be natural or no in respect of common custom and usage, I take upon me to assert that it is an honest and laudable practice and that, if already it be not natural to us, we ought however to make it so by study and application.
(p. 72)",,10612,•Cross-reference: the preceding bit about self-dissection puts me in mind of Godwin. Is this an intertext?,"""You would wonder to hear how close he pushes matters and how thoroughly he carries on the business of self-dissection. By virtue of this soliloquy, he becomes two distinct persons. He is pupil and preceptor. He teaches and he learns.""",Inhabitants,2013-07-09 20:00:10 UTC,"Part I, Section 1"
4136,"",Reading,2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,"Much more is this the Case in Dialogue. For here the Author is annihilated; and the Reader being no way apply'd to, stands for Nobody. The self-interesting Partys both vanish at once. The Scene presents it-self, as by chance, and undesign'd. You are not only left to judg coolly, and with indifference, of the Sense deliver'd; but of the Character, Genius, Elocution, and Manner of the Persons who deliver it. These too are mere Strangers, in whose favour you are no way engag'd. Nor is it enough that the Persons introduc'd speak pertinent and good Sense, at every turn. It must be seen from what bottom they speak; from what Principle, what Stock or Fund of Knowledg they draw; and what Kind or Species of Understanding they possess. For the Understanding here must have its Mark, its characteristick Note, by which it may be distinguish'd. It must be such and such an Understanding; as when we say, for instance, such or such a Face: since Nature has characteriz'd Tempers and Minds as peculiarly as Faces. And for an Artist who draws naturally, 'tis not enough to shew us merely Faces which may be call'd Men's: Every Face must be a certain Man's.
(pp. 201-2, p. 90 in Klein)",,10626,"","""It must be such and such an Understanding; as when we say, for instance, such or such a Face: since Nature has characteriz'd Tempers and Minds as peculiarly as Faces.""","",2013-07-10 14:46:13 UTC,"Part I, Section 3"
7520,"",Reading; text from C-H Lion,2013-07-09 16:49:08 UTC,"It was heretofore the Wisdom of some wise Nations, to let People be Fools as much as they pleas'd, and never to punish seriously what deserv'd only to be laugh'd at, and was after all best cur'd by that innocent Remedy. There are certain Humours in Mankind, which of necessity must have vent. The Human Mind and Body are both of 'em naturally subject to Commotions: and as there are strange Ferments in the Blood, which in many Bodys occasion an extraordinary discharge; so in Reason too, there are heterogeneous Particles which must be thrown off by Fermentation. Shou'd Physicians endeavour absolutely to allay those Ferments of the Body, and strike in the Humours which discover themselves in such Eruptions, they might, instead of making a Cure, bid fair perhaps to raise a Plague, and turn a Spring-Ague or an Autumn-Surfeit into an epidemical malignant Fever. They are certainly as ill Physicians in the Body-Politick, who wou'd needs be tampering with these mental Eruptions; and under the specious pretence of healing this Itch of Superstition, and saving Souls from the Contagion of Enthusiasm, shou'd set all Nature in an uproar, and turn a few innocent Carbuncles into an Inflammation and mortal Gangrene.
(pp. 13-14; p. 9 in Klein)",,21575,"","""They are certainly as ill Physicians in the Body-Politick, who wou'd needs be tampering with these mental Eruptions; and under the specious pretence of healing this Itch of Superstition, and saving Souls from the Contagion of Enthusiasm, shou'd set all Nature in an uproar, and turn a few innocent Carbuncles into an Inflammation and mortal Gangrene.""","",2013-07-09 16:49:08 UTC,Section 3
4103,"",Reading,2013-07-09 19:30:05 UTC,"There is indeed a kind of defensive Raillery (if I may so call it) which I am willing enough to allow in Affairs of whatever kind; when the Spirit of Curiosity wou'd force a Discovery of more Truth than can conveniently be told. For we can never do more injury to Truth, than by discovering too much of it, on some occasions. 'Tis the same with Understandings as with Eyes: To such a certain Size and Make just so much Light is necessary, and no more. Whatever is beyond, brings Darkness and Confusion.
(p. 62; p. 30 in Klein)",,21585,"","""'Tis the same with Understandings as with Eyes: To such a certain Size and Make just so much Light is necessary, and no more. Whatever is beyond, brings Darkness and Confusion.""",Eye,2013-07-09 19:30:05 UTC,""
4103,"",Reading,2013-07-09 19:32:13 UTC,"Nor is it a wonder that Men are generally such faint Reasoners, and care so little to argue strictly on any trivial Subject in Company; when they dare so little exert their Reason in greater Matters, and are forc'd to argue lamely, where they have need of the greatest Activity and Strength. The same thing therefore happens here as in strong and healthy Bodys, which are debar'd their natural Exercise, and confin'd in a narrow Space. They are forc'd to use odd Gestures and Contortions. They have a sort of Action, and move still, tho with the worst Grace imaginable. For the animal Spirits in such sound and active Limbs cannot lie dead, or without Employment. And thus the natural free Spirits of ingenious Men, if imprison'd and controul'd, will find out other ways of Motion to relieve themselves in their Constraint: and whether it be in Burlesque, Mimickry or Buffoonery, they will be glad at any rate to vent themselves, and be reveng'd on their Constrainers.
(p. 71; p. 34 in Klein)",,21587,"","""Nor is it a wonder that Men are generally such faint Reasoners, and care so little to argue strictly on any trivial Subject in Company; when they dare so little exert their Reason in greater Matters, and are forc'd to argue lamely, where they have need of the greatest Activity and Strength. The same thing therefore happens here as in strong and healthy Bodys, which are debar'd their natural Exercise, and confin'd in a narrow Space. They are forc'd to use odd Gestures and Contortions.""","",2013-07-09 19:32:13 UTC,""
4136,"",Reading,2013-07-09 21:27:21 UTC,"Now such as these Masters and their Lessons are to a fine Gentleman, such are Philosophers, and Philosophy, to an Author. The Case is the same in the fashionable, and in the literate World. In the former of these 'tis remark'd, that by the help of good Company and the force of Example merely, a decent Carriage is acquir'd, with such apt Motions and such a Freedom of Limbs, as on all ordinary occasions may enable the Party to demean himself like a Gentleman. But when upon further occasion, trial is made in an extraordinary way; when Exercises of the genteeler kind are to be perform'd in publick, 'twill easily appear who of the Pretenders have known Rudiments, and had Masters in private; and who on the other side have contented themselves with bare Imitation, and learnt only casually and by rote. The Parallel is easily made on the side of Writers. They have at least as much need of learning the several Motions, Counterpoises and Ballances of the Mind and Passions, as the other Students those of the Body and Limbs.
(p. 191; p. 86 in Klein)",,21599,"","The Parallel is easily made on the side of Writers. They have at least as much need of learning the several Motions, Counterpoises and Ballances of the Mind and Passions, as the other Students those of the Body and Limbs.""","",2013-07-09 21:27:21 UTC,""