work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3618,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""invad"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-04 00:00:00 UTC,"These Ruins of his Citie from the Skie,
Alcides look'd on, with a mournfull Eye,
But all in vain; for him the strict command,
And fear of his great Father Jove withstand,
That he should nothing act 'gainst the Decree
Of his severe Step-Mother. Therefore He,
Concealing his Design, to Faith repairs,
Who in the farthest part of Heav'n, the Cares
Of Deities revolv'd: thus, at her Shrine
He tries Her Counsels: Thou great Power Divine!
Born before Jove himself: who art the Grace,
And Honour both of Gods, and Humane Race,
Consort of Justice, without whom nor Seas,
Nor Earth, can know the benefit of Peace;
A Goddess (where thou art) in every Breast!
Canst thou behold Sagunthus, thus opprest,
Unmov'd? That Citie, which, for Thee alone,
So many, so great ills, hath undergone?
For Thee the People dy, upon Thee, all,
Men, Women, Children, that can speak, do call,
By Famine overcome: from Heaven relieve
Their sad Estate, and some Assistance give.
Thus He; To whom the Heav'nly Maid again
Replies. I see all this, nor is't in vain,
That thus my Leagues infringed are: a Day
Shall come, Alcides, that shall sure repay,
With Vengance these their dire Attempts. But I
Was forc'd from the polluted Earth to fly,
To seek, in Jove's blest Mansions, a Place,
Free from the num'rous Frauds of Humane Race.
I left their Tyrans, that their Scepters hold,
Fearing, as they are Fear'd: that Fury, Gold,
The vile Reward of Treacheries, I left,
And above all, the Men, who now bereft
Of all Humanity, like Beasts by Spoil,
And Rapine, live, while Honour is the Foil
To Luxury, and Modesty by Night,
And her dark Crimes opprest, avoids the Light,
The place of Right, the too imperious Sword
Doth arrogate; and Force alone's Ador'd:
Vertue gives way to Vice; for look upon
The Nations of the Earth, and there is none
Is Innocent; their frequent Fellowship
In Crimes, alone, the Common Peace doth keep.
But that these Walls, erected by thy Hand,
May in the Book of Fame for ever stand,
By an End worthy Thee, and that they may
Not give their Bodies up a Captive Prey,
To the Proud African (which, onely, now
The Fates, and State of Future things allow)
The Honour of their Death will I extend
Beyond the pow'r of Fate, and them commend,
As Patterns, to Posterity, and go,
With their prais'd Souls, unto the Shades below.
This said; The constant Virgin, through the Air,
Descends, and to Sagunthus doth repair,
Then strugling with the Fates: through ev'ry Breast
She goes, invades their Minds, which, all-possest
By her great Deitie, each Soul doth prove
Her Altar, burning by her Sacred Love.
Now, as if Strong again, for Arms they cry,
And in the Fight their weak Endeavours try.
Strength, above Hope, they find, while the sweet Name,
And Honour, of the Goddess doth inflame
Their Hearts; resolved, for her Sake, to dye,
And suffer things, far worse then Death; to try
The Food of Savage Beasts, and Crimes to add
To their Repast: but them chaste Faith forbad
Longer, with so much Guilt, to view the Day,
Or with Man's Flesh their Hunger to allay.",,9394,•Translated from Silius Italicus.
•I've included twice: Invasion and Altar,"""[T]hrough ev'ry Breast [Faith] goes, invades their Minds, which, all-possest / By her great Deitie, each Soul doth prove / Her Altar, burning by her Sacred Love""",Empire,2009-09-14 19:34:11 UTC,""
3626,"","Reading Louis Bredvold's The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962): 63.",2005-04-06 00:00:00 UTC,"Thus, my Lord, your sickness is but the imitation of your health; the poet but subordinate to the statesman in you: you still govern men with the same address, and manage business with the same prudence; allowing it here, as in the world, the due increase and growth, till it comes to the just height; and then turning it when it is fully ripe, and Nature calls out, as it were, to be delivered. With this only advantage of ease to you in your poetry, that you have fortune here at your command; with which, wisdom does often unsuccessfully struggle in the world. Here is no chance, which you have not foreseen; all your heroes are more than your subjects, they are your creatures; and though they seem to move freely in all the sallies of their passions, yet you make destinies for them, which they cannot shun. They are moved (if I may dare to say so) like the rational creatures of the Almighty Poet, who walk at liberty, in their own opinion, because their fetters are invisible; when, indeed, the prison of their will is the more sure for being large; and instead of an absolute power over their actions, they have only a wretched desire of doing that, which they cannot choose but do.",2010-12-30,9416,"•INTEREST. Creepy determinism in art and life.
•Bredvold cites from Works, II, 132-33.
bull; Reading again in Google Books....","""They are moved (if I may dare to say so) like the rational creatures of the Almighty Poet, who walk at liberty, in their own opinion, because their fetters are invisible; when, indeed, the prison of their will is the more sure for being large; and instead of an absolute power over their actions, they have only a wretched desire of doing that, which they cannot choose but do.""",Fetters,2012-01-28 20:21:44 UTC,""
3676,"","Reading Louis Bredvold's The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962), p. 63.",2005-04-06 00:00:00 UTC,"ALMANZOR
O Heaven, how dark a riddle's thy decree,
Which bounds are wills, yet seems to leave them free!
Since thy fore-knowledge cannot be in vain,
Our choice must be what thou didst first ordain.
Thus, like a captive in an isle confined,
Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind:
Wills all his crimes, while Heaven the indictment draws,
And pleading guilty, justifies the laws.",,9537,•I've included twice: Island and Prison
•Cross-reference: Robinson Crusoe.,"""Thus, like a captive in an isle confined, / Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind.""","",2013-10-06 17:46:14 UTC,""
3709,"","Searching ""room"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-03-26 00:00:00 UTC,"The World's a Monster,
And a humane life
So full of strife,
That a dry morsel better may suffice
With quiet, than contentions sacrifice.
Man is conceiv'd
In sin; when born
Become a scorn;
Addicts himself to vanities and lyes;
Poysons himself with sin, then bursts, and dies.
Then, O my Soul,
That thou may'st thrive,
Fix thus to live:
Serve God, and love thy Neighbour; not for gains,
Self-service will but cheat thee for thy pains.
Consider well,
Thou canst not buy
Eternity,
But pious Pray'rs and Tears must be thy cost;
For Heav'n is not so soon obtain'd as lost.
Prepare thy heart,
For that's the room
Where God must come:
Then mind not things that are but transitory,
But entertain thy God, the King of Glory.
He when he comes
Will be thy Guest,
Himself the Feast.
Of Earth no expectation thou canst have,
But live a sinner, to become a slave.",,9601,"","""Prepare thy heart, / For that's the room / Where God must come:""",Rooms,2009-09-14 19:34:20 UTC,I've included the entire poem
3720,"",Searching for cross reference. ,2005-09-03 00:00:00 UTC,"DOLA.
Men are but children of a larger growth;
Our appetites as apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain;
And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room,
Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing:
But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind,
Works all her folly up, and casts it outward
To the world's open view: Thus I discovered,
And blamed the love of ruined Antony:
Yet wish that I were he, to be so ruined.
(ll. 50-74)",,9602,•Cross-reference: These lines also appear in Richardson's Pamela,"""And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room, / Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing""","",2009-09-14 19:34:20 UTC,Act IV
3711,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""cabinet"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-09-07 00:00:00 UTC,"The Mariner that's drove by Boreas breath,
Doth sail within four inches of his death.
So of the Soul the saying may be true,
That e're it bids its Cabinet adieu,
Four inches is the most that it doth keep
Betwixt its life and an eternal sleep.
If the Ship splits, or by a fire doth shrink,
The Ship is swallow'd, and the Sailers sink.
So if our earthly Vessels break, the Soul
Doth to another Habitation roul,
For ever plung'd into a boundless Sea,
The bankless Ocean of Eternity.
The Soul should therefore careful be, and strive
To swim, before it come to sink or dive.",,9603,"","""So of the Soul the saying may be true, / That e're it bids its Cabinet adieu, / Four inches is the most that it doth keep / Betwixt its life and an eternal sleep""",Rooms,2009-09-14 19:34:21 UTC,I've included the entire poem
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-11 22:20:43 UTC,"The multiplication also of Laws and Ceremonies of Religion does exceedingly multiply questions of practice ; and there were among the Jews, by reason of their numerous rites many more than there were at first among the Christians.
For we find the Apostles only exhorting to humility, to piety towards parents, to obedience to magistrates, to charity and justice ; and the Christians who meant well understood well, and needed no books of Conscience but the Rule, and the Commandment. But when Error crept in, Truth became difficult and hard to be understood: and when the Rituals of the Church and her laws became numerous, then Religion was hard to be practised: and when Men set up new interests,
then the laws of Conscience were so many, that as the laws of
the old Romans,
--------verba minantia fixo
Aere legebantur--------
which at first were nailed in a brass-plate upon a wall, became at last so numerous and filled so many volumes, that their very Compendium made a large digest ; so are these too many to be considered, or perfectly to be understood; and therefore either they must be cut off by simplicity and an
honest heart, and contempt of the World, and our duty must
look for no measures but love and the lines of the easy Commandment, or else we can have no peace and no security. But with these there is not only collateral security, but very often a direct wisdom. Because he that endeavours to keep
a good Conscience and hath an honest mind, besides that he
will inquire after his duty sufficiently, he will be able to tell
very much of it himself: for God will assist him, and cause
that his own mind shall tell him more than seven Watchmen that sit in a Tower; and if he miss, he is next to an excuse, and God is ready to pardon him: and therefore in what sect of Christianity soever any man is ingaged, if he have an honest heart and a good Conscience, though he be in darkness, he will find his way out, or grope his way within; he
shall be guided, or he shall be pardon'd; God will pity
him, and find some way for his remedy; and, if it be necessary, will bring him out.
(pp. xv)",,17638,"","""Because he that endeavours to keep
a good Conscience and hath an honest mind, besides that he will inquire after his duty sufficiently, he will be able to tell very much of it himself: for God will assist him, and cause that his own mind shall tell him more than seven Watchmen that sit in a Tower; and if he miss, he is next to an excuse, and God is ready to pardon him: and therefore in what sect of Christianity soever any man is ingaged, if he have an honest heart and a good Conscience, though he be in darkness, he will find his way out, or grope his way within; he shall be guided, or he shall be pardon'd; God will pity him, and find some way for his remedy; and, if it be necessary, will bring him out.""","",2010-01-11 23:06:30 UTC,Preface
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 18:35:51 UTC,"11. S. Bernard comparing the Conscience to a house, says it stands upon seven pillars. 1. Good will. 2. Memory of Gods benefits. 3. A clean heart. 4. A free spirit. 5. A right Soul. 6. A devout mind. 7. An enlightned
reason. These indeed are, some of them, the fruits and effects, some of them are the annexes and appendages of a good conscience, but not the foundations or pillars upon which conscience is built.
(p. 4)",,17663,"","""S. Bernard comparing the Conscience to a house, says it stands upon seven pillars.""","",2010-01-12 18:35:51 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
7097,"","Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",2011-09-20 16:18:22 UTC,"[...] Shall any Man think Banishment Grievous, when he may take such Company along with him? Nor is there any Banishment, but yields enough for our Necessities, and no Kingdom is sufficient for Superfluities. It is the Mind that makes us Rich in a Desart; and if the Body be but kept Alive, the Soul Enjoys all Spiritual Felicities in Abundance. What signifies the being Banish'd from one Spot of Ground to Another, to a Man that has his Thoughts Above, and can look Forward, and Backward, and where ever he pleases; and that where ever he is, has the same Matter to work upon? The Body is but the Prison, or the Clog of the Mind; subjected to Punishments, Robberies, Diseases; but the Mind is Sacred, and Spiritual, and Liable to no Violence. Is it that a Man shall want Garments, or Covering in Banishment? The Body is as easily Cloth'd, as Fed; and Nature has made nothing Hard that is Necessary. But if nothing will serve us, but Rich Embroideries, and Scarlet, 'tis none of Fortune's Fault that we are Poor, but our Own. Nay, suppose a Man should have All restor'd him back again that he has Lost; it will come to nothing, for he will want more after That, to satisfie his Desires, than he did before, to supply his Necessities. Insatiable Appetites are not so much a Thirst, as a Disease.
(pp. 274-5)",,19193,"","""The Body is but the Prison, or the Clog of the Mind; subjected to Punishments, Robberies, Diseases; but the Mind is Sacred, and Spiritual, and Liable to no Violence.""",Fetters,2011-09-20 16:18:22 UTC,"Of a Happy Life, Chapter XXIV"
3745,"",Reading,2014-09-27 20:30:47 UTC,"[...]
In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace.
A fiery Soul, which working out its way,
Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay;
And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay.
A daring Pilot in extremity;
Pleas'd with the Danger, when the Waves went high
He sought the Storms; but for a Calm unfit,
Would Steer to nigh the Sands, to boast his Wit,
Great Wits are sure to Madness neer ally'd;
And thin Partitions do their Bounds divide:
Else, why should he, with Wealth and Honour blest,
Refuse his Age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a Body which he coud not please;
Bankrupt of Life, yet Prodigal of ease?
And all to leave, what with his Toyl he won,
To that unfeather'd, two legg'd thing, a Son:
Got, while his Soul did hudled Notions try;
And born a shapeless Lump, like Anarchy.
In friendship false, implacable in hate:
Resolv'd to ruine, or to Rule the State.
To compass this, the Triple Bond he broke;
The Pillars of the publick Safety shook:
And fitted Israel for a Foreign Yoke.
Then, seiz'd with Fear, yet still affecting Fame,
Usurp'd a Patriot's All-atoning Name.
So easy still it proves in factious times,
With publick Zeal to cancel private crimes:
How safe is Treason, and how sacred ill,
Where none can sin against the peoples will:
Where Crowds can wink; and no offence be known,
Since in anothers guilt they find their own.
Yet, Fame deserv'd, no Enemy can grudge;
The Statesman we abhor, but praise the Judge.
In Israels Courts ne'r sat an Abbethdin
With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean:
Unbrib'd, unsought, the Wretched to redress;
Swift of Dispatch, and easie of Access.
Oh, had he been content to serve the Crown,
With vertues only proper to the Gown;
Or, had the rankness of the Soyl been freed
From Cockle, that opprest the Noble seed:
David, for him his tuneful Harp had strung,
And Heav'n had wanted one Immortal song.
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand;
And Fortunes Ice prefers to Vertues Land:
Achitophel, grown weary to possess
A lawful Fame, and lazy Happiness;
Disdain'd the Golden Fruit to gather free,
And lent the Croud his Arm to shake the Tree.
Now, manifest of Crimes, contriv'd long since,
He stood at bold Defiance with his Prince:
Held up the Buckler of the peoples Cause,
Against the Crown; and sculk'd behind the Laws.
The wish'd occasion of the Plot he takes;
Some circumstances finds, but more he makes.
By buzzing Emissaries, fills the ears
Of listning Crowds, with jealousies and fears
Of Arbitrary Counsels brought to light,
And proves the King himself a Iebusite:
Weak Arguments! which yet he knew full well,
Were strong with People easie to Rebel. [...]
(pp. 11-12 in Dublin edition)",,24457,"","""In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. / A fiery Soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay; / And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay.""","",2014-09-27 20:30:47 UTC,""