work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5705,Mind's Eye,Searching in ECCO,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,"According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank. According to Plato, she is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy. On the former system, she is on a level with the most degraded natures, the receptacle of material species, and the spectator of delusion and non-entity. Hence, her energies are nothing but somnolent perceptions, and encumbered cogitations; of all her knowledge terminated in sense, and her science in passion. Like a man between sleeping and waking, her visions are turbid and confused, and the phantoms of a material night, continually glide before her drowsy eye. But on the latter system, the soul is the connecting medium of an intelligible and sensible nature, the bright repository of all middle forms, and the vigilant eye of all cogitative reasons. Hence she is capable of rousing herself from the sleep of a corporeal life, and emerging from this dark Cimmerian land, into the regions of light and reality. At first, indeed, before she is excited by science, she is oppressed with lethargy, and clouded with oblivion; but in proportion as learning and enquiry stimulate her dormant powers, she wakens from the dreams of ignorance, and opens her eye to the irradiations of wis- [end page xxxi] dom. On Mr. Locke's system, the principles of science and sense are the same, for the energies of both originate from material forms, on which they are continually employed. Hence, science is subject to the flowing and perishable nature of particulars; and if body and its attributes were destroyed, would be nothing but a name. But on the system of Plato, they differ as much as delusions and reality; for here the vital, permanent, and lucid nature of ideas is the fountain of science; and the inert, unstable, and obscure nature of sensible objects, the source of sensation. On Mr. Locke's system, body may be modified into thought, and become an intelligent creature; it may be subtilized into life, and shrink, by its exility, into intellect. On that of Plato, body can never alter its nature by modification, however, it may be rarefied and refined, varied by the transposition of its part, or tortured by the hand of experiment. In short, the two systems may be aptly represented by the two sections of a line, in Plato's Republic. In the ancient, you have truth itself, and whatever participates of the brightest evidence and reality: in the modern, ignorance, and whatever belongs to obscurity and shadow. The former fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries her downwards into the dark labyrinths of matter.
(pp. xxxi-xxxii)",,15223,•Taylor seems like quite a character. See ODNB.
•I've included twice: Eye and Light,"""At first, indeed, before she is excited by science, she is oppressed with lethargy, and clouded with oblivion; but in proportion as learning and enquiry stimulate her dormant powers, she wakens from the dreams of ignorance, and opens her eye to the irradiations of wisdom""","",2009-09-14 19:43:04 UTC,""
5705,"",Searching in ECCO,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,"According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank. According to Plato, she is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy. On the former system, she is on a level with the most degraded natures, the receptacle of material species, and the spectator of delusion and non-entity. Hence, her energies are nothing but somnolent perceptions, and encumbered cogitations; of all her knowledge terminated in sense, and her science in passion. Like a man between sleeping and waking, her visions are turbid and confused, and the phantoms of a material night, continually glide before her drowsy eye. But on the latter system, the soul is the connecting medium of an intelligible and sensible nature, the bright repository of all middle forms, and the vigilant eye of all cogitative reasons. Hence she is capable of rousing herself from the sleep of a corporeal life, and emerging from this dark Cimmerian land, into the regions of light and reality. At first, indeed, before she is excited by science, she is oppressed with lethargy, and clouded with oblivion; but in proportion as learning and enquiry stimulate her dormant powers, she wakens from the dreams of ignorance, and opens her eye to the irradiations of wis- [end page xxxi] dom. On Mr. Locke's system, the principles of science and sense are the same, for the energies of both originate from material forms, on which they are continually employed. Hence, science is subject to the flowing and perishable nature of particulars; and if body and its attributes were destroyed, would be nothing but a name. But on the system of Plato, they differ as much as delusions and reality; for here the vital, permanent, and lucid nature of ideas is the fountain of science; and the inert, unstable, and obscure nature of sensible objects, the source of sensation. On Mr. Locke's system, body may be modified into thought, and become an intelligent creature; it may be subtilized into life, and shrink, by its exility, into intellect. On that of Plato, body can never alter its nature by modification, however, it may be rarefied and refined, varied by the transposition of its part, or tortured by the hand of experiment. In short, the two systems may be aptly represented by the two sections of a line, in Plato's Republic. In the ancient, you have truth itself, and whatever participates of the brightest evidence and reality: in the modern, ignorance, and whatever belongs to obscurity and shadow. The former fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries her downwards into the dark labyrinths of matter.
(pp. xxxi-xxxii)",2011-06-26,15226,"•Taylor seems like quite a character. See ODNB.
•I've included four times: Light, Fetters, Eye, Bands","""The former [Platonic philosophy] fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter [Lockean philosophy] clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries her downwards into the dark labyrinths of matter.""",Fetters,2011-05-27 14:11:28 UTC,""
6785,"",Reading,2010-12-31 21:30:00 UTC,"But the danger of this pleasing intoxication must not be concealed; nor indeed can any one, after having observed the life of Savage, need to be cautioned against it. By imputing none of his miseries to himself he continued to act upon the same principles, and to follow the same path; was never made wiser by his sufferings, nor preserved by one misfortune from falling into another. He proceeded throughout his life to tread the same steps on the same circle; always applauding his past conduct, or at least forgetting it, to amuse himself with phantoms of happiness which were dancing before him, and willingly turned his eyes from the light of reason, when it would have discovered the illusion and shewn him, what he never wished to see, his real state.",,18090,"","""He proceeded throughout his life to tread the same steps on the same circle; always applauding his past conduct, or at least forgetting it, to amuse himself with phantoms of happiness which were dancing before him, and willingly turned his eyes from the light of reason, when it would have discovered the illusion and shewn him, what he never wished to see, his real state.""","",2010-12-31 21:30:00 UTC,""
7060,"",Searching in Google Books,2011-08-01 20:23:11 UTC,"But this unrighteous traffick in human blood is not more destructive to those concerned, in it, than disgraceful to the religion they profess, and so the nation which tolerates their crimes. By their means the holy name of Jesus is blasphemed, and an invincible obstacle thrown in the way, to hinder the glorious Gospel of Christ from being received by these Heathens. Darkness is not more opposite to light than the principles of this traffick to the spirit of Christianity. That commands us ""to preach good tidings unto the meek;"" but these men deliberately withhold from their Slaves all rational instruction, and all religious improvement. The Prince of Peace sends us ""to bind up the broken-hearted;"" but these men bow down their fellow-creatures by oppression, and ""regard not the cry of the poor destitute."" The spirit of the Gospel ""proclaims liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound:"" but these men rivet the chains of slavery; ""the iron enters into the Negro's soul,"" while while his mind is left in all the darkness of ignorance, without one ray of those comforts which Christianity affords, to strengthen with patience, and to animate with hope, them that endure affliction, suffering wrongfully.
(pp. 22-4)",,19083,"","""The spirit of the Gospel 'proclaims liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound:' but these men rivet the chains of slavery; 'the iron enters into the Negro's soul,' while while his mind is left in all the darkness of ignorance, without one ray of those comforts which Christianity affords, to strengthen with patience, and to animate with hope, them that endure affliction, suffering wrongfully.""",Fetters and Metal,2013-09-23 18:14:52 UTC,""
7063,"",Reading at the Schomburg Center (NYPL),2011-08-23 14:35:07 UTC,"[...] We find, indeed, admirable directions for our conduct in a great variety of respects; but then those directions resulted from the occasional application of those general principles to particular cases, according to the discretion of the several writers. There is no proper limitation of benevolence, as an active principle, but the impracticability of its farther extension; and if we, who so justly and highly venerate the characters and writings of the apostles, should however be enabled, by means of that superiority of light and knowledge which, in some respects, we undoubtedly enjoy, to apply this grand principle to cases which did not occur to them, we act in a manner perfectly conformable to the genius and spirit of Christianity, though the authority of a positive precept may be wanting. St. Paul, probably, had no idea of a state of civil society, in which the spirit of liberty would operate to the total annihilation of the very condition of slavery. He contented himself, therefore, with giving directions worthy of an apostle, for the religious conduct of masters and servants, under actually existing circumstances; but enlightened Christians in the present age, well know that slavery may be, and in many Christian countries has, in fact, been totally abolished, not only with safety, but with real advantage to society, and a great increase of the general happiness: they, therefore, justly condemn the state itself as inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, though in peculiar circumstances private Christians may, perhaps, justifiably acquiesce in a state of things which it is not in the power of individuals to alter. But the evils attending the Slave Trade are of a nature very different, and of a far greater magnitude than those which necessarily result from the mere condition of slavery. In no state of society can a practice, involving in it circumstances of such atrocious and enormous guilt, be considered as defensible by any person whose understanding is not darkened by the turpitude of his heart; in whom not only the feelings of the moral sense are extinguished, but, in this instance at least, every ray even of common sense.
(pp. 445-6)",,19085,"","""In no state of society can a practice, involving in it circumstances of such atrocious and enormous guilt, be considered as defensible by any person whose understanding is not darkened by the turpitude of his heart; in whom not only the feelings of the moral sense are extinguished, but, in this instance at least, every ray even of common sense.""","",2011-08-23 14:35:07 UTC,Essay XXIII
7192,"",Reading,2012-02-28 18:04:16 UTC,"The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reason, without eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit, that Addison seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design.",,19596,"","""The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reason, without eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit, that Addison seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design.""","",2012-02-28 18:04:16 UTC,""
5452,"","Searching ""heart"" in PGDP",2013-06-21 19:48:27 UTC,"MY DEAR FRIEND: 'Avoir du monde' is, in my opinion, a very just and happy expression for having address, manners, and for knowing how to behave properly in all companies; and it implies very truly that a man who hath not those accomplishments is not of the world. Without them, the best parts are inefficient, civility is absurd, and freedom offensive. A learned parson, rusting in his cell, at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, he knows nothing of man, for he hath not lived with him; and is ignorant of all the various modes, habits, prejudices, and tastes, that always influence and often determine him. He views man as he does colors in Sir Isaac Newton's prism, where only the capital ones are seen; but an experienced dyer knows all their various shades and gradations, together with the result of their several mixtures. Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do form different lights. The man 'qui a du monde' knows all this from his own experience and observation: the conceited, cloistered philosopher knows nothing of it from his own theory; his practice is absurd and improper, and he acts as awkwardly as a man would dance, who had never seen others dance, nor learned of a dancing-master; but who had only studied the notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes. Observe and imitate, then, the address, the arts, and the manners of those 'qui ont du monde': see by what methods they first make, and afterward improve impressions in their favor. Those impressions are much oftener owing to little causes than to intrinsic merit; which is less volatile, and hath not so sudden an effect. Strong minds have undoubtedly an ascendant over weak ones, as Galigai Marachale d'Ancre very justly observed, when, to the disgrace and reproach of those times, she was executed for having governed Mary of Medicis by the arts of witchcraft and magic. But then ascendant is to be gained by degrees, and by those arts only which experience and the knowledge of the world teaches; for few are mean enough to be bullied, though most are weak enough to be bubbled. I have often seen people of superior, governed by people of much inferior parts, without knowing or even suspecting that they were so governed. This can only happen when those people of inferior parts have more worldly dexterity and experience, than those they govern. They see the weak and unguarded part, and apply to it they take it, and all the rest follows. Would you gain either men or women, and every man of sense desires to gain both, 'il faut du monde'. You have had more opportunities than ever any man had, at your age, of acquiring 'ce monde'. You have been in the best companies of most countries, at an age when others have hardly been in any company at all. You are master of all those languages, which John Trott seldom speaks at all, and never well; consequently you need be a stranger nowhere. This is the way, and the only way, of having 'du monde', but if you have it not, and have still any coarse rusticity about you, may not one apply to you the 'rusticus expectat' of Horace?
(III.ccxlv, LONDON, April 30, O. S. 1752.)",,21120,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY,"""A learned parson, rusting in his cell, at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, he knows nothing of man, for he hath not lived with him; and is ignorant of all the various modes, habits, prejudices, and tastes, that always influence and often determine him. He views man as he does colors in Sir Isaac Newton's prism, where only the capital ones are seen; but an experienced dyer knows all their various shades and gradations, together with the result of their several mixtures. Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do form different lights.""",Optics,2013-06-21 19:48:27 UTC,""
7574,"",Reading,2013-07-25 15:59:59 UTC,"It would not be to the present purpose, even if I had the means and materials, which I have not, to enter into the private life of Mr. Gainsborough. The history of his gradual advancement, and the means by which he acquired such excellence in his art, would come nearer to our purpose and wishes, if it were by any means attainable; but the flow progress of advancement is in general, imperceptible to the man himself who makes it; it is the consequence of an accumulation of various ideas, which his mind has received, he does not, perhaps, know how or when. Sometimes indeed it happens, that he may be able to mark the time, when from the sight of a picture, a passage in an author, or a hint in conversation, he has received, as it were, some new and guiding light, something like inspiration, by which his mind has been expanded, and is morally sure that his whole life and conduct has been affected by that accidental circumstance. Such interesting accounts we may however sometimes obtain from a man, who has acquired an uncommon habit of self-examination, and has attended to the progress of his own improvement.
(pp. 5-6)",,22072,"","""Sometimes indeed it happens, that he may be able to mark the time, when from the sight of a picture, a passage in an author, or a hint in conversation, he has received, as it were, some new and guiding light, something like inspiration, by which his mind has been expanded, and is morally sure that his whole life and conduct has been affected by that accidental circumstance.""","",2013-07-25 15:59:59 UTC,""
7583,"",Reading,2013-08-15 04:53:46 UTC,"108. Wisdom, Prudence.
Wisdom, makes us act and speak, properly; prudence, prevents our speaking, or acting, improperly. The first, in order to attain its ends, searches out the best paths to follow: the second, that it may not miss its aim, tries, to discover the bad ways, in order to avoid them.
Wisdom, is more knowing; prudence, more wary.
The wise man, makes use of those means, that are most proper for his purpose; he conducts himself, by the light of reason. The prudent, man, takes those ways, he thinks most sure; he does not venture, into places unknown.
An ancient writer, has said, that, it is a mark of wisdom, not to talk on any subject, but what, we are thorough masters of, especially, if we would be esteemed: we, may add to this maxim, that, it is a piece of prudence, not to bring a disagreeable subject on the tapis, particularly, if we are desirous of being beloved.
(I, pp. 121-2)",,22149,"","""The 'wise' man, makes use of those means, that are most proper for his purpose; he conducts himself, by the light of reason.""","",2013-08-15 04:53:46 UTC,""
7583,"",Reading,2013-08-15 04:57:24 UTC,"214. Prepossessed, Opiniated, Obstinate, Infatuated, Headstrong.
These epithets denote a folly, which consists in being too much wedded to our own opinion; but, that, which is particularized by the word, prepossessed, seems to arise, from excess of prejudice, which seduces, and, causes us to think, what we have preconceived, the best; paying little or no regard to the opinions of others. In one opiniated, this folly seems to be, the effect of an over-fondness for his own notions, and, a contempt for those, of others. Obstinacy, seems to spring, from an affected perverseness, which renders it intractable, and, which, against the rules of good-breeding, will never give way. An infatuated person, is supposed to be folly-struck, to suffer some loss of reason, which is the occasion of that inflexibility we observe in him. As to the word, headstrong, though, often, used as synonymous with the above; it appears to me, to have a greater relation to a man's actions, intimating a blind determination, that stops his ears to every argument, and, renders him ungovernable.
Prepossessed, and, opiniated, imply, a mind, strongly, prejudiced; obstinate, and, headstrong, an unruly will; infatuated, a wandering in the dark.
Thus, to be prepossessed, opiniated, or, infatuated, is involuntary; to be obstinate, or, headstrong, voluntary.
A person prepossessed, follows his own opinions, after examining in some sort, those of others. One, who is opiniated, follows his own notions, implicitly, without ever listning to those of others. Obstinacy, pursues its own way, in spite of every opposition, and, often, through mere caprice. Infatuation acts so strongly, as in some measure, to take away that reason, which is the light of the mind; and thus darkening it, leads a man into the grossest errors. The headstrong person, often, acts through a spirit of opposition, and seldom leaves his course, till he has completed his ruin.
(II, pp. 8-9)",,22152,"","""'Infatuation' acts so strongly, as in some measure, to take away that reason, which is the light of the mind; and thus darkening it, leads a man into the grossest errors.""","",2013-08-15 04:58:59 UTC,""