work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3885,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),2004-06-14 00:00:00 UTC,"THE DISCOURAGEMENT
What wou'd the wise men's Censure be,
I wonder, should they hear me say
I was resolv'd to throw my Books away;
How wou'd some scorn, and others pitty me!
Sure he's in love, 'tis for some Charming Eve
That he like Adam Paradise does leave.
This only difference would be
Between my great Gandsire, and me,
That I my Paradise forego
For want of appetite to know.
'Tis not that Knowledge I despise;
No, you misconstrue my design;
Or that t' Enthusiasm I incline
And hope by Inspiration to be wise.
'Tis not for this I bid my Books adieu,
No, I love Learning full as well as you,
And have the Arts great Circle run
With as much Vigour as the Sun
His Zodiac treads, till t'other day
A thought surpris'd me in my way.
Thought I, for any thing I know,
What we have stamp'd for science here,
Does only the Appearance of it wear
And will not pass above, tho Current here below;
Perhaps they've other rules to reason by,
And what's Truth here, with them's Absurdity.
We Truth by a Refracted ray
View, like the Sun at Ebb of day:
Whom the gross, treacherous Atmosphere
Makes where it is not, to appear.
Why then shall I with sweat and pain
Digg Mines of disputable Oar?
My labour's certain, so is not my store,
I may hereafter unlearn all again.
Why then for Truth do I my Spirits waste,
When after all I may be guil'd at last?
So when the honest Patriarch thought
With seven years labour he had bought
His Rachels Love, by morning light
He found the errour of the night.
Or grant some Knowledge dwells below,
'Tis but for some few years to stay
Till I'm set loose from this dark House of Clay,
And in an Instant I shall all things know.
Then shall I learn t' Accumulate Degrees
And be at once made Master of all Sciences.
What need I then great Summs lay out,
And that Estate with care forestall,
Which when few years are come about,
Into my hands of Course will fall?
",,10060,•INTEREST. A poem in which a philosopher despairs of philosophy. Poem bears witness to Norris's Platonism/Malebranchism,"""Or grant some Knowledge dwells below, / 'Tis but for some few years to stay / Till I'm set loose from this dark House of Clay, / And in an Instant I shall all things know.""","",2013-06-26 16:13:36 UTC,""
3891,"",HDIS (Poetry),2004-08-19 00:00:00 UTC," Thee gentle Charmer I implore
This my lost Treasure to restore;
Thy magic vertues all apply,
Set up again my Bank-rupt memory.
Search every Cell and corner of my brain,
And bring my Fugitive again.
To thy dark Cave thy self betake
And 'mong thy Dreams enquiry make;
Summon the best Ideas to appear
And bring that Form which most resembles her.",,10067,"","""This my lost Treasure to restore; / Thy magic vertues all apply, / Set up again my Bank-rupt memory. / Search every Cell and corner of my brain, / And bring my Fugitive again.""",Coinage and Rooms,2013-06-11 17:57:47 UTC,""
3892,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""room"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Take bright Urania to thy Amorous breast,
To her thy flaming heart resign;
Void not the room, but change the guest,
And let thy sensual love commence Divine.",,10068,•I've included twice: Room and Guest,"""Take bright Urania to thy Amorous breast, / To her thy flaming heart resign; / Void not the room, but change the guest, / And let thy sensual love commence Divine""",Rooms,2009-09-14 19:34:41 UTC,""
3886,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),2006-03-15 00:00:00 UTC,"But now, thou soft Enchantress of the mind,
Farewel, a change, a mighty change I find;
The Empire of my Heart thou must resign,
For I can be no longer thine.
A Nobler, a Diviner Guest,
Has took possession of my Breast;
He has, and must engross it all,
And yet the room is still too small.
In vain you tempt my Heart to rove,
A fairer Object now my Soul does move,
It must be all Devotion, what before was Love.
",,10076,"","""A Nobler, a Diviner Guest, / Has took possession of my Breast; / He has, and must engross it all, / And yet the room is still too small.""",Rooms,2009-09-14 19:34:42 UTC,""
3896,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),2006-11-16 00:00:00 UTC," How long great God, how must I
Immur'd in this dark Prison lye!
Where at the Grates and Avenues of sense
My Soul must watch to have intelligence.
Where but faint gleams of thee salute my sight,
Like doubtful Moonshine in a Cloudy night.
When shall I leave this magic Sphere,
And be all Mind, all Eye, all Ear!",,10077,"","""How long great God, how must I / Immur'd in this dark Prison lye! / Where at the Grates and Avenues of sense / My Soul must watch to have intelligence.""","",2009-09-14 19:34:42 UTC,""
3986,Interiority; Augustine,"Searching ""interiority"" in OED and ECCO.",2006-05-31 00:00:00 UTC,"15. We may the conclude, that whatever we clearly and distinctly perceive is true, and that as long as we have Light before us, and assent to nothing but what we have a clear view and perception of, 'tis impossible we should err, or judge amiss. And consequently that we may then judge securely, and safely acquiesce and repose our selves in such Judgments, as true and certain, and as it were the undeceiving answers of Truth it self, even that interior Truth, whose School and Oracle is within our Breast, whose Instructions are faithful and unerring, and who seldom fails to answer us by them if we consult her aright. And indeed after all, we have no other reason to think any Proposition true in any of the Sciences, but only becuase we clearly perceive that it is so, and it shines out upon our Minds with and unquestionable and irresistable Light, and if that Reason be not a good one, then we are not sure of our knowing any Thing, but must quit all pretences to Science, and after the [End Page 170] Efforts of Contemplation sink down into a sceptical uncertainty. But if this Supposition be too absurd to be granted (as all Philosophy and Religion too is concern'd to maintain) then we must say, that whatever we clearly percieve is undoubtedly so as we perceive it. Evidence then is the Mark and distinguishing Character of Truth, she dwells in Light, and we may know her Divinity among a thousand probable Appearances, by the Glory that surrounds her.",,10353,•I've included twice: School and Oracle,"And consequently that we may then judge securely, and safely acquiesce and repose our selves in such Judgments, as true and certain, and as it were the undeceiving answers of Truth it self, even that interior Truth, whose School and Oracle is within our Breast, whose Instructions are faithful and unerring, and who seldom fails to answer us by them if we consult her aright.""","",2014-10-13 16:52:50 UTC,Vol 2 of 2. Part II. ... Section VI
7137,"","Reading Simon Varey, Space and the Eighteenth-Century English Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990), 57.",2011-12-23 16:50:56 UTC,"2. As first the Frame of the Body, of which I think most reasonable to conclude the Soule her self to be the more particular Architect (for I will not wholly reject Plotinus his opinion;) and that the Plastick power resides in her, as also in the Soules of Brute animals, as very learned and worthy Writers have determined. That the Fabrick of the Body is out of the concurse of Atomes, is a meer precarious Opinion, without any ground or reason. For Sense does not discover any such thing, the first rudiments of life being out of some liquid homogeneall Matter; and it is against reason, that the tumbling of Atomes or corporeall particles should produce such exquisite frames of creatures, wherein the acutest wit is not able to find any thing inept, but all done exquisitely wel everywhere, where the foulness and courseness of Matter has not been in fault. That God is not the immediate Maker of these Bodyes, the particular miscarriages demonstrate. For there is no Matter so perverse and stubborn but his Omnipotency could tame; whence there would be no Defects nor Monstrosities in the generation of Animals. Nor is it so congruous to admit, that the Plastick faculty of the Soul of the World is the sole contriver of these Fabricks of particular creatures (though I will not deny but she may give some rude preparative stroaks towards Efformation:) but that in every particular world, such as Man is especially, his own Soule is the peculiar and most perfective Architect thereof, as the Soule of the World is of it. For this vitall Fabrication is not as in artificiall Architecture, when an external person acts upon Matter, but implies a more particular and near union with that Matter it thus intrinsecally shapes out and organizes. And what ought to have a more particular and close union with our Bodies then our Souls themselves? My opinion is therefore, That the Soule, which is a Spirit, and therefore contractible and dilatable, begins within less compass at first in Organizing the fitly-prepared Matter, and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the Body has attained its full growth; and that the Soule dilates it self in the dilating of the Body, and so possesses it through all the members thereof.
(II.10, pp. 216-8)",,19363,"","""As first the Frame of the Body, of which I think most reasonable to conclude the Soule her self to be the more particular Architect (for I will not wholly reject Plotinus his opinion;) and that the Plastick power resides in her, as also in the Soules of Brute animals, as very learned and worthy Writers have determined.""",Rooms,2011-12-23 16:54:16 UTC,"Book II, Chapter 10"
7137,"","Reading Simon Varey, Space and the Eighteenth-Century English Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990), 57.",2011-12-23 16:53:28 UTC,"3. In the next place we are to take notice, That the immediate Instrument of the Soul are those tenuious and aereal particles which they ordinarily call the Spirits; that these are they by which the Soul hears, sees, feels, imagines, remembers, reasons, and by moving which, or at least directing their motion, she moves likewise the Body; and by using them, or some subtile Matter like them, she either compleats, or at least contributes to the Bodies Organization. For that the Soul should be the Vital Architect of her own house, that close connexion and sure possession she is to have of it, distinct and secure from the invasion of any other particular Soul, seems no slight Argument. And yet that while she is exercising that Faculty, she may have a more then ordinary Union or Implication with the Spirit of Nature, or the Soul of the World, so far forth as it is Plastick, seems not unreasonable: and therefore is asserted by Plotinus; and may justly be suspected to be true, if we attend to the prodigious effects of the Mothers Imagination derived upon the Infant, which sometimes are so very great, that, unless she raised the Spirit of Nature into consent, they might well seem to exceed the power of any Cause. I shall abstain from producing any Examples till the proper place: in the mean time I hope I may be excused from any rashness in this assignation of the cause of those many and various Signatures found in Nature, so plainly pointing at such a Principle in the World as I have intimated before.
(II.17.3, pp. 298-9)",,19364,"","""For that the Soul should be the Vital Architect of her own house, that close connexion and sure possession she is to have of it, distinct and secure from the invasion of any other particular Soul, seems no slight Argument.""",Rooms,2012-03-29 18:10:55 UTC,"Book II, Chapter 17"
3591,"",Reading,2013-06-06 21:51:54 UTC,"This makes the Platonists look upon the spirit of man as the Candle of the Lord for illuminating and irradiating of objects, and darting more light upon them then it receives from them. But Plato as he failed in corporeal vision whilest he thought that it was per extramiss•onem radiorum; So he did not ab errore suo recedere in his intellectual optio••but in the very same manner tells us that spiritual vision also is per emissionem radiorum. And truly he might as well phansie such implanted Ideas, such seeds of light in his external eye, as such seminal principles in the eye of the minde. Therefore Aristotle (who did better clarifie both these kindes of visions) pluckt these motes out of the sensitive eye, and those beames out of the intellectual. He did not antedate his own knowledge, nor remember the several postures of his soul, and the famous exploits of his minde before he was born; but plainly profest that his understanding came naked into the world. He shews you an [GREEK], an abrasa tabula, a virgin-soul espousing it self to the body, in a most entire, affectionate, and conjugal union, and by the blessing of heaven upon this loving paire, he did not doubt of a Notional off-spring & posterity; this makes him set open the windows of sense to welcome and entertain the first dawnings, the early glimmerings of morninglight. Clarum mane fenestras intrat & Angustas extendit lumine rimas. Many sparks and appearances fly from variety of objects to the understanding; The minde, that catches them all, and cherishes them, and blows them; and thus the Candle of knowledge is lighted. As he could perceive no connate colours, no pictures or portraictures in his external eye: so neither could he finde any signatures in his minde till some outward objects had made some impression upon his [GREEK] his soft and plyable understanding impartially prepared for every seal. That this is the true method of knowledge he doth appeal to their own eyes, to their own understandings; do but analyse your own thoughts, do but consult with your own breasts, tell us whence it was that the light first sprang in upon you. Had you such notions as these when you first peept into being? at the first opening of the souls eye? in the first exordium of infancy? had you these connate Species in the cradle? and were they rockt asleep with you? or did you then meditate upon these principles? Totum est majus parte, & Nihil potest esse & non esse simul. Ne're tell us that you wanted origanical dispositiōs, for you plainly have recourse to the sensitive powers, and must needs subscribe to this, that al knowledg comes flourishing in at these lattices. Why else should not your Candle enlighten you before? who was it that chained up; and fettered your common notions▪ Who was it that restrained and imprisoned your connate Idea's? Me thinks the working of a Platonists soul should not at all depend on [GREEK]; and why had you no connate demonstrations, as well as connate principles? Let's but see a catalogue of all these truths you brought with you into the world. If you speak of the principles of the Laws of Nature, you shall hear the Schoolmen determining. Infans pro illo statu non obligatur lege naturali, quia non habet usum Rationis & libertatis. And a more sacred Author saies as much, Lex Naturae est lex intelligentiae quam tamen ignorat pueritia, nescit infantia. There's some time to be allowed for the promulgation of Natures Law by the voice of Reason. They must have some time to spell the [GREEK] that was of Reasons writing. The minde having such gradual and climbing accomplishments, doth strongly evince that the true rise of knowledge is from the observing and comparing of objects, and from thence exstracting the quintessence of some such principles as are worthy of all acceptation; that have so much of certainty in them, that they are neer to a Tautology and Identity, for this first principles are.
(pp. 90-2)",,20464,"","""He did not antedate his own knowledge, nor remember the several postures of his soul, and the famous exploits of his minde before he was born; but plainly profest that his understanding came naked into the world. He shews you an [...], an abrasa tabula, a virgin-soul espousing it self to the body, in a most entire, affectionate, and conjugal union, and by the blessing of heaven upon this loving paire, he did not doubt of a Notional off-spring & posterity; this makes him set open the windows of sense to welcome and entertain the first dawnings, the early glimmerings of morning light.""","",2013-06-06 21:51:54 UTC,"Chap. XI. The light of Reason is a derivative light.
"
3591,"",Reading,2013-06-10 14:29:56 UTC,"This makes the Platonists look upon the spirit of man as the Candle of the Lord for illuminating and irradiating of objects, and darting more light upon them then it receives from them. But Plato as he failed in corporeal vision whilest he thought that it was per extramiss•onem radiorum; So he did not ab errore suo recedere in his intellectual optio••but in the very same manner tells us that spiritual vision also is per emissionem radiorum. And truly he might as well phansie such implanted Ideas, such seeds of light in his external eye, as such seminal principles in the eye of the minde. Therefore Aristotle (who did better clarifie both these kindes of visions) pluckt these motes out of the sensitive eye, and those beames out of the intellectual. He did not antedate his own knowledge, nor remember the several postures of his soul, and the famous exploits of his minde before he was born; but plainly profest that his understanding came naked into the world. He shews you an [GREEK], an abrasa tabula, a virgin-soul espousing it self to the body, in a most entire, affectionate, and conjugal union, and by the blessing of heaven upon this loving paire, he did not doubt of a Notional off-spring & posterity; this makes him set open the windows of sense to welcome and entertain the first dawnings, the early glimmerings of morninglight. Clarum mane fenestras intrat & Angustas extendit lumine rimas. Many sparks and appearances fly from variety of objects to the understanding; The minde, that catches them all, and cherishes them, and blows them; and thus the Candle of knowledge is lighted. As he could perceive no connate colours, no pictures or portraictures in his external eye: so neither could he finde any signatures in his minde till some outward objects had made some impression upon his [GREEK] his soft and plyable understanding impartially prepared for every seal. That this is the true method of knowledge he doth appeal to their own eyes, to their own understandings; do but analyse your own thoughts, do but consult with your own breasts, tell us whence it was that the light first sprang in upon you. Had you such notions as these when you first peept into being? at the first opening of the souls eye? in the first exordium of infancy? had you these connate Species in the cradle? and were they rockt asleep with you? or did you then meditate upon these principles? Totum est majus parte, & Nihil potest esse & non esse simul. Ne're tell us that you wanted origanical dispositiōs, for you plainly have recourse to the sensitive powers, and must needs subscribe to this, that al knowledg comes flourishing in at these lattices. Why else should not your Candle enlighten you before? who was it that chained up; and fettered your common notions? Who was it that restrained and imprisoned your connate Idea's? Me thinks the working of a Platonists soul should not at all depend on [GREEK]; and why had you no connate demonstrations, as well as connate principles? Let's but see a catalogue of all these truths you brought with you into the world. If you speak of the principles of the Laws of Nature, you shall hear the Schoolmen determining. Infans pro illo statu non obligatur lege naturali, quia non habet usum Rationis & libertatis. And a more sacred Author saies as much, Lex Naturae est lex intelligentiae quam tamen ignorat pueritia, nescit infantia. There's some time to be allowed for the promulgation of Natures Law by the voice of Reason. They must have some time to spell the [GREEK] that was of Reasons writing. The minde having such gradual and climbing accomplishments, doth strongly evince that the true rise of knowledge is from the observing and comparing of objects, and from thence exstracting the quintessence of some such principles as are worthy of all acceptation; that have so much of certainty in them, that they are neer to a Tautology and Identity, for this first principles are.
(pp. 90-2)",,20468,"","""Ne're tell us that you wanted origanical dispositions, for you plainly have recourse to the sensitive powers, and must needs subscribe to this, that al knowledg comes flourishing in at these lattices. Why else should not your Candle enlighten you before? who was it that chained up; and fettered your common notions? Who was it that restrained and imprisoned your connate Idea's?""","",2013-06-10 14:29:56 UTC,Chap. XI. The light of Reason is a derivative light.