work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context 5088,Momus Glass,Reading,2009-09-14 19:38:59 UTC,"If the fixture of Momus' glass, in the human breast, according to the proposed emendations of that arch-critick, had taken place,--first, This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,--That the very wisest and the very gravest of us all, in one coin or other, must have paid window-money every day of our lives.

And, secondly, That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;--watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and after some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, &c.--then taken your pen and ink and set down nothing but what you have seen, and could have sworn to:--But this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet.""
(I.xxiii, Norton, p. 52)",2013-04-14,13687,"Reviewed 2013-04-14: discovered missing text in the middle of the quote. What the fuck?
Reviewed 2011-09-23
Reviewed 2004-11-18
•borrowed from later, now deleted entry:
Maggots?!
The OED gives for maggot, n1:
2. a. A whimsical, eccentric, strange, or perverse notion or idea. Now arch. and regional .
   a1625 J. F LETCHER Women Pleas'd III .iv, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Eeeeee2 v/1, Are not you mad my friend?.. Have not you Maggots in your braines? c1645 J. H OWELL Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1688) II. 328 There's a strange Magot hath got into their Brain. 1680 DRYDEN Kind Keeper V.i. 57 What new Maggot's this? you dare not sure be jealous! 1685 S. W ESLEY (title )Maggots: Or, Poems on several subjects. a1692 T. S HADWELL Volunteers (1693) V.i. 51 M. G. Bl. Ha Fellow, what dost thou mean by a Maggot? Hop. Sir, a little Concern of mine in my way, alittle whim, or so sir. 1717 M. P RIOR Alma I.400 Your Horace owns, he various writ, As wild or sober maggots bit. 1784 R. B URNS Commonplace Bk. Aug., One who spends the hours..with Ossian, Shakspeare,..&c.; or, as the maggot takes him, a gun, a fiddle, or a song to make or mend. 1802 J. W OLCOT Pitt & Statue in Wks. (1812) IV. 501 Soon as a maggot crept into my head I caught a stump of pen and put it down. 1816 SCOTT Antiquary III. ix. 90 For a' the nonsense maggots that ye whiles take into your head, ye are the maist wise and discreet o' a' our country gentles. 1898 D. C. M URRAY Tales 255 She's got some maggot in her head about being loved for her own sake. 1928 D. L. S AYERS Lord Peter views Body 208 One o' these 'ere sersiety toffs wiv a maggot fer old books. 1957 G. H EYER Sylvester xvi. 180 'My love,' I said..'You've got a maggot in your Idea-pot.' ","""That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;--watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and after some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, &c.""",Animals and Optics,2013-04-14 20:54:57 UTC,"Vol. 1, Chap. 23"