text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"I pretend not to teach, but to enquire, and therefore cannot but confess here again, that external and internal sensation are the only passages I can find of knowledge to the understanding. These alone, as far as I can discover, are the windows by which light is let into this dark room: For methinks the understanding is not much unlike a closet wholly shut from light, with only some little openings left, to let in external visible resemblances, or ideas of things without: Would the pictures coming into such a dark room but stay there, and lie so orderly as to be found upon occasion, it would very much resemble the understanding of a man, in reference to all objects of sight, and the ideas of them.
(II.xi.17)",2016-03-11 21:28:43 UTC,"Internal and external sensation, ""These alone, as far as I can discover, are the windows by which light is let into this dark room: For methinks the understanding is not much unlike a closet wholly shut from light, with only some little openings left, to let in external visible resemblances, or ideas of things without""",2006-04-16 00:00:00 UTC,II.xi.17,"",2004-11-08,Rooms,"•I've included thrice: Windows, Room, Closet","Reading; found again searching ""windows"" in Past Masters. See also Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 144-145; found again reading M.H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition (London: Oxford UP, 1953), 57. Also, Joanna Picciotto, Labors of Innocence in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010), 261; Sean Silver, The Mind is a Collection: Case Studies in Eighteenth-Century Thought (Philadelphia: Penn Press, 2015), 31, 56, 58, 63.",10009,3866
"We therefore must the Deity conceive
By such an Image as our Senses give.
Spirits to us this only way are known,
And such Conceptions we must form or none.
Why then should Statues be condemn'd, design'd
To raise Devotion in a Pious Mind,
When if we think of God, within our Thought
Some Image of his Being must be wrought?
The Sacred Volumes oft th'Almighty name
As having Parts and Limbs and Humane Frame.
Th'Eternal to our Minds by Words and Ways
Adapted to our Sense himself conveys,
Whose Being still must be from Man conceal'd,
If not by means that fit our State reveal'd.
These Arguments my yielding Reason sway'd,
When Worship first to Images I paid.
And these with Clovis too would soon succeed,
Were first your Mind from Prepossession freed.
Oh, let no groundless Prejudice oppose
The Light, that from so pure a Fountain flows.
May these kind Beams dispel the Clouds, and find
An unobstructed Passage to your Mind.
Thus you'll preserve your Life with guiltless Art,
And still remain a Christian in your Heart.
(Bk VIII, p. 215, ll. 337-360)",2013-07-02 18:54:29 UTC,"""Oh, let no groundless Prejudice oppose / The Light, that from so pure a Fountain flows. / May these kind Beams dispel the Clouds, and find / An unobstructed Passage to your Mind.""",2013-07-02 18:54:29 UTC,Book VIII,"",,"","",C-H Lion,21429,3938
"The Question is, Whether this be fair or no? and, Whether it be not just and reasonable, to make as free with our own Opinions, as with those of other People? For to be sparing in this case, may be look'd upon as a piece of Selfishness. We may be charg'd perhaps with wilful Ignorance and blind Idolatry, for having taken Opinions upon Trust, and consecrated in our-selves certain Idol-Notion, which we will never suffer to be unveil'd, or seen in open light. They may perhaps be Monsters, and not Divinitys, or Sacred Truths, which are kept thus choicely, in some dark Corner of our Minds: The Specters may impose on us, whilst we refuse to turn 'em every way, and view their Shapes and Complexions in every light. For that which can be shewn only in a certain Light, is questionable. Truth, 'tis suppos'd, may bear all Lights: and one of those principal Lights or natural Mediums, by which Things are to be view'd, in order to a thorow Recognition, is Ridicule it-self, or that Manner of Proof by which we discern whatever is liable to just Raillery in any Subject. So much, at least, is allow'd by All, who at any time appeal to this Criterion. The gravest Gentlemen, even in the gravest Subjects, are suppos'd to acknowledg this: and can have no Right, 'tis thought, to deny others the Freedom of this Appeal; whilst they are free to censure like other Men, and in their gravest Arguments make no scruple to ask, Is it not ridiculous?
(pp. 60-1; pp. 29-30 in Klein)",2013-07-09 19:28:06 UTC,"""They may perhaps be Monsters, and not Divinitys, or Sacred Truths, which are kept thus choicely, in some dark Corner of our Minds: The Specters may impose on us, whilst we refuse to turn 'em every way, and view their Shapes and Complexions in every light.""",2013-07-09 19:28:06 UTC,"","",,Rooms,"",Reading,21584,4103
"EARL OF PEMBROKE.
Here let me fix
And gaze with Everlasting Wonder on thee.
What is there Good or Excellent in Man,
That is not found in thee? Thy Virtues flash,
They break at once on my astonish'd Soul;
As if the Curtains of the Dark were drawn,
To let in Day at Midnight.
(IV.i, pp. 44-45)",2013-07-21 17:26:49 UTC,"""Thy Virtues flash, / They break at once on my astonish'd Soul; / As if the Curtains of the Dark were drawn, / To let in Day at Midnight.""",2013-07-21 17:26:49 UTC,"Act IV, scene i","",,"","",C-H Lion,21935,7552
"Thirsting for Knowledge, but to know the right,
Thro' judgment's optick guide th' illusive sight,
To let in rays on Reason's darkling cell,
And Prejudice's lagging mists dispel;
For this you turn the Greek and Roman page,
Weigh the contemplative and active Sage,
And cull some useful flow'r from each historick Age.
(p. 71)",2013-11-10 04:13:28 UTC,"""Thirsting for Knowledge, but to know the right, / Thro' judgment's optick guide th' illusive sight, / To let in rays on Reason's darkling cell, / And Prejudice's lagging mists dispel.""",2013-11-10 04:13:28 UTC,"","",,Rooms,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,23145,7750
"The Description of that pure and gentle Light which overflows these happy Regions, and cloaths the Spirits of these virtuous Persons, hath something in it of that Enthusiasm which this Author was accused of by his Enemies in the Church of Rome; but however it may look in Religion, it makes a very beautiful Figure in Poetry.
The Rays of the Sun, says he, are Darkness in Comparison with this Light, which rather deserves the Name of Glory, than that of Light. It pierces the thickest Bodies, in the same Manner as the Sun Beams pass through Chrystal: It strengthens the Sight instead of dazzling it; and nourishes in the most inward Recesses of the Mind, a perpetual Serenity that is not to be express'd. It enters and incorporates it self with the very Substance of the Soul: The Spirits of the Blessed feel it in all their Senses, and in all their Perceptions. It produces a certain Source of Peace and Joy that arises in them for ever, running through all the Faculties, and refreshing all the Desires of the Soul. External Pleasures and Delights, with all their Charms and Allurements, are regarded with the utmost Indifference and Neglect by these happy Spirits who have this great Principle of Pleasure within them, drawing the whole Mind to its self, calling off their Attention from the most delightful Objects, and giving them all the Transports of Inebriation, without the Confusion and the Folly of it.
(III, pp. 209-10; cf. II, )",2014-03-02 20:07:16 UTC,"""It [the light of Elysium] pierces the thickest Bodies, in the same Manner as the Sun Beams pass through Chrystal: It strengthens the Sight instead of dazzling it; and nourishes in the most inward Recesses of the Mind, a perpetual Serenity that is not to be express'd.""",2014-03-02 20:07:16 UTC,"","",,Rooms,Description of Elysium (talking about Fenelon),ECCO-TCP,23426,7817