work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3797,"","Reading; found again in Past Masters. Found again in Margreta de Grazia’s ""Imprints: Shakespeare, Gutenberg, and Descartes,"" in Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005): 29-58, p. 31.",2003-10-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Let us then conceive of the matter in the following way. First, in so far as our external senses are all parts of the body, sense-perception, strictly speaking, is merely passive, even though our application of the senses to objects involves action, viz. local motion; sense-perception occurs in the same way in which wax takes on an impression from a seal. It should not be thought that I have a mere analogy in mind here: we must think of the external shape of the sentient body as being really changed by the object in exactly the same way as the shape of the surface of the wax is altered by the seal. This is the case, we must admit, not only when we feel some body as having a shape, as being hard or rough to the touch etc., but also when we have a tactile perception of heat or cold and the like. The same is true of the other senses: thus, in the eye, the first opaque membrane receives the shape impressed upon it by multi-coloured light; and in the ears, the nose and the tongue, the first membrane which is impervious to the passage of the object thus takes on a new shape from the sound, the smell and the flavour respectively.
(Rule 12, p. 40)",2012-01-26,9785,"•INTEREST. But not a ""mere analogy""! Interesting, then what is it?
• USE IN ENTRY.","""First, in so far as our external senses are all parts of the body, sense-perception, strictly speaking, is merely passive, even though our application of the senses to objects involves action, viz. local motion; sense-perception occurs in the same way in which wax takes on an impression from a seal.""",Impressions,2013-10-07 19:24:41 UTC,Rule Twelve
3797,"",Past Masters,2003-10-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Fifthly, and lastly, the power through which we know things in the strict sense is purely spiritual, and is no less distinct from the whole body than blood is distinct from bone, or the hand from the eye. It is one single power, whether it receives figures from the 'common' sense at the same time as does the corporeal imagination, or applies itself to those which are preserved in the memory, or forms new ones which so preoccupy the imagination that it is often in no position to receive ideas from the 'common' sense at the same time, or to transmit them to the power responsible for motion in accordance with a purely corporeal mode of operation. In all these functions the cognitive power is sometimes passive, sometimes active; sometimes resembling the seal, sometimes the wax. But this should be understood merely as an analogy, for nothing quite like this power is to be found in corporeal things. It is one and the same power: when applying itself along with imagination to the 'common' sense, it is said to see, touch etc.; when addressing itself to the imagination alone, in so far as the latter is invested with various figures, it is said to remember; when applying itself to the imagination in order to form new figures, it is said to imagine or conceive; and lastly, when it acts on its own, it is said to understand. How understanding comes about I shall explain at greater length in the appropriate place. According to its different functions, then, the same power is called either pure intellect, or imagination, or memory, or sense-perception. But when it forms new ideas in the corporeal imagination, or concentrates on those already formed, the proper term for it is 'native intelligence'. We are regarding it as being capable of performing these different operations; and the distinction between these terms will have to be kept in mind in what follows. If all these matters are conceived along such lines, the attentive reader will have no difficulty in gathering what aids we should seek to obtain from each of these faculties and the lengths to which human endeavour can be stretched in supplementing the shortcomings of our native intelligence.
(Rule 12, p. 41-3)",2012-01-26,9789,"•Not published in Descartes lifetime. First Dutch translation in 1684. First Latin in 1701.
• USE IN ENTRY","""In all these functions the cognitive power is sometimes passive, sometimes active; sometimes resembling the seal, sometimes the wax.""",Impressions,2012-01-26 14:59:47 UTC,Rule Twelve
3866,Innate Ideas,Reading,2003-09-04 00:00:00 UTC,"That the general Maxims, we are discoursing of, are not known to Children, Ideots, and a great part of Mankind we have already sufficiently proved: whereby it is evident, they have not an universal assent, nor are general Impressions. But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them: And 'tis, in my Opinion, a strong Presumption, that they are not innate; since they are not in the least known to those, in whom, if they were innate, they must needs exert themselves with most Force and Vigour. For Children, Ideots, Savages, and illiterate People, being of all others the least corrupted by Custom, or borrowed Opinions; Learning, and Education, having not cast their Native thoughts into new Moulds; nor by super-inducing foreign and studied Doctrines, confounded those fair Characters Nature had written there, one might reasonably imagine, that in their Minds these innate Notions should lie open fairly to every one's view, as 'tis certain the thoughts of Children do. It might be very well expected, that these Principles should be perfectly known to Naturals; which being stamped immediately on the Soul (as these Men suppose) can have no dependence on the Constitutions, or Organs of the Body, the only confessed difference between them and others. One would think, according to these Men's Principles, That all these native Beams of Light (were there any such) should in those, who have no Reserves, no Arts of Concealment, shine out in their full Lustre, and leave us in no more doubt of their being there, than we are of their love of Pleasure, and abhorrence of Pain. But alas, amongst Children, Ideots, and Savages, and the grosly Illiterate, what general Maxims are to be found? What universal Principles of Knowledge? Their Notions are few and narrow, borrowed only from those Objects, they have had the most to do with, and which have made upon their Senses the frequentest and strongest Impressions.
(I.ii.27)",2011-05-23,9930,"• There is a lot happening in this passage. You can almost see Locke's language uncoil and strike. Locke's parting shot in Book I, Chapter ii","""But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them.""",Impressions,2011-05-26 03:39:27 UTC,I.ii.27
3866,Innate Ideas,Reading,2003-09-04 00:00:00 UTC,"That the general Maxims, we are discoursing of, are not known to Children, Ideots, and a great part of Mankind we have already sufficiently proved: whereby it is evident, they have not an universal assent, nor are general Impressions. But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them: And 'tis, in my Opinion, a strong Presumption, that they are not innate; since they are not in the least known to those, in whom, if they were innate, they must needs exert themselves with most Force and Vigour. For Children, Ideots, Savages, and illiterate People, being of all others the least corrupted by Custom, or borrowed Opinions; Learning, and Education, having not cast their Native thoughts into new Moulds; nor by super-inducing foreign and studied Doctrines, confounded those fair Characters Nature had written there, one might reasonably imagine, that in their Minds these innate Notions should lie open fairly to every one's view, as 'tis certain the thoughts of Children do. It might be very well expected, that these Principles should be perfectly known to Naturals; which being stamped immediately on the Soul (as these Men suppose) can have no dependence on the Constitutions, or Organs of the Body, the only confessed difference between them and others. One would think, according to these Men's Principles, That all these native Beams of Light (were there any such) should in those, who have no Reserves, no Arts of Concealment, shine out in their full Lustre, and leave us in no more doubt of their being there, than we are of their love of Pleasure, and abhorrence of Pain. But alas, amongst Children, Ideots, and Savages, and the grosly Illiterate, what general Maxims are to be found? What universal Principles of Knowledge? Their Notions are few and narrow, borrowed only from those Objects, they have had the most to do with, and which have made upon their Senses the frequentest and strongest Impressions.
(I.ii.27)",,9932,•There is a lot happening in this passage. You can feel Locke's language uncoil and strike. ,"""It might be very well expected, that these Principles should be perfectly known to Naturals; which being stamped immediately on the Soul (as these Men suppose) can have no dependence on the Constitutions, or Organs of the Body, the only confessed difference between them and others.""","",2011-05-26 03:29:02 UTC,I.ii.27
3866,"",Reading,2003-09-06 00:00:00 UTC,"If it has no memory of its own Thoughts; if it cannot lay them up for its use, and be able to recal them upon occasion; if it cannot reflect upon what is past, and make use of its former Experiences, Reasonings, and Contemplations to what purpose does it think? They who make the Soul a thinking Thing at this rate, will not make it a much more noble Being, than those do, whom they condemn, for allowing it to be nothing but the subtilest parts of Matter. Characters drawn on Dust, that the first breath of wind effaces; or Impressions made on a heap of Atoms, or animal Spirits, are altogether as useful, and render the Subject as noble, as the Thoughts of a Soul that perish in thinking; that once out of sight, are gone for ever, and leave no memory of themselves behind them. Nature never makes excellent things, for mean or no uses: and it is hardly to be conceived, that our infinitely wise Creator, should make so admirable a Faculty, as the power of Thinking, that Faculty which comes nearest the Excellency of his own incomprehensible Being, to be so idlely and uselessly employ'd, at least 1/4 part of its time here, as to think constantly, without remembering any of those Thoughts, without doing any good to it self or others, or being any way useful to any other part of Creation.
(II.i.15)",2004-06-24,9947,"•I've included twice: Writing and Body. (6/24/2004)
•Cross-reference: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's poem ""Epistle [to Lord Bathurst]""
•Cross-reference: Johnson uses in his Dictionary, illustrates third entry under Thought. ","""Characters drawn on Dust, that the first breath of wind effaces; or Impressions made on a heap of Atoms, or animal Spirits, are altogether as useful, and render the Subject as noble, as the Thoughts of a Soul that perish in thinking; that once out of sight, are gone for ever, and leave no memory of themselves behind them.""",Impressions,2011-05-30 18:46:31 UTC,II.i.15. On the suggestion that a man may think while he sleeps but does not remember it
3866,"","Reading; found again, reading P. B. Wood, “Hume, Reid, and the Science of Mind” in Hume and Hume’s Connexions, ed. M.A. Stewart and J.P. Wright (University Park: The Pennsylvania State UP, 1994), 130.",2003-09-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Thus the Ideas, as well as Children, of our youth, often die before us: And our Minds represent to us those Tombs, to which we are approaching; where though the Brass and Marble remain, yet the Inscriptions are effaced by time, and the Imagery moulders away. The pictures drawn in our Minds, are laid in fading Colours; and if not sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear. How much the Constitution of our Bodies, and the make of our animal Spirits, are concerned in this; and whether the Temper of the Brain make this difference, that in some it retains the Characters drawn on it like Marble, in others like Free-stone, and in others little better than Sand, I shall not here enquire, though it may seem probable, that the Constitution of the Body does sometimes influence the Memory; since we oftentimes find a Disease quite strip the Mind of all its Ideas, and the flames of a Fever, in a few days, calcine all those Images to dust and confusion, which seem'd to be as lasting, as if graved in Marble.
(II.x.5)",2012-01-28,9966,"•This is a metaphorically rich chapter! Even more entries follow this paragraph!
• Calcine and engraving? Is this a mixed metaphor? Does this make sense? Yes, it looks like it... Marble can be calcined. But then, why the as if?
•OED gives for calcine: ""1. v.t. a Reduce by roasting or burning to quicklime or a similar friable substance or powder""
","""I shall not here enquire, though it may seem probable, that the Constitution of the Body does sometimes influence the Memory; since we oftentimes find a Disease quite strip the Mind of all its Ideas, and the flames of a Fever, in a few days, calcine all those Images to dust and confusion, which seem'd to be as lasting, as if graved in Marble.""",Impressions and Writing,2012-01-30 20:00:58 UTC,II.x.5
4229,"","Searching ""stamp"" and ""breast"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-04-11 00:00:00 UTC," Great Sir, renown'd for Constancy, how just
'Have we obey'd the Crown, and serv'd our Trust,
'Espous'd your Cause and Interest in Distress,
'Your self must witness, and our Foes confess!
'Permit us then ill Fortune to accuse,
'That you at last unhappy Councils use,
'And ask the only thing we must refuse.
'Our Lives and Fortunes freely we'll expose,
'Honour alone we cannot, must not lose:
'Honour, that Spark of the Celestial Fire,
'That above Nature makes Mankind aspire;
'Enobles the rude Passions of our Frame,
'With Thirst of Glory, and Desire of Fame;
'The richest Treasure of a generous Breast,
'That gives the Stamp and Standard to the rest.
'Wit, Strength, and Courage, are wild dangerous Force,
'Unless this softens and directs their Course;
'And would you rob us of the noblest Part,
'Accept a Sacrifice without a Heart?
''Tis much beneath the Greatness of a Throne,
'To take the Casket when the Jewel's gone;
'Debauch our Principles, corrupt our Race,
'And teach the Nobles to be False and Base;
'What Confidence can you in them repose,
'Who e're they serve you, all their Value lose?
'Who once enslave their Conscience to their Lust,
'Have lost their Reins, and can no more be Just.
(pp. 11-12, ll. 20-46; pp. 1-2 in 1689 ed.)",,11013,•I've included twice: Stamp and Treasure,"Honor is ""The richest Treasure of a generous Breast, / 'That gives the Stamp and Standard to the rest.""",Coinage,2013-10-15 01:23:39 UTC,"An embedded speech by ""brave SHREWSBURY and LUMLY's Name"""
3797,"","Reading; found again searching in Past Masters. Found again in Margreta de Grazia’s ""Imprints: Shakespeare, Gutenberg, and Descartes,"" in Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005): 29-58, p. 31. ",2012-01-26 14:55:12 UTC,"Let us then conceive of the matter in the following way. First, in so far as our external senses are all parts of the body, sense-perception, strictly speaking, is merely passive, even though our application of the senses to objects involves action, viz. local motion; sense-perception occurs in the same way in which wax takes on an impression from a seal. It should not be thought that I have a mere analogy in mind here: we must think of the external shape of the sentient body as being really changed by the object in exactly the same way as the shape of the surface of the wax is altered by the seal. This is the case, we must admit, not only when we feel some body as having a shape, as being hard or rough to the touch etc., but also when we have a tactile perception of heat or cold and the like. The same is true of the other senses: thus, in the eye, the first opaque membrane receives the shape impressed upon it by multi-coloured light; and in the ears, the nose and the tongue, the first membrane which is impervious to the passage of the object thus takes on a new shape from the sound, the smell and the flavour respectively.
(Rule 12, p. 40)",,19542,"• INTEREST. ""no mere analogy"" ... The deflationary mere in metaphors like this deserves comment. USE IN ENTRY.","""It should not be thought that I have a mere analogy in mind here: we must think of the external shape of the sentient body as being really changed by the object in exactly the same way as the shape of the surface of the wax is altered by the seal.""",Impressions,2013-10-07 19:23:33 UTC,Rule Twelve
3623,"",Reading,2012-01-30 21:12:52 UTC,"Here I could add something about how the traces of these ideas pass through the arteries to the heart, and thus radiate through all the blood; and about how certain actions of a mother may sometimes even cause such traces to be imprinted on the limbs of the child being formed in her womb. But I shall content myself with telling you more about how the traces are imprinted on the internal part of the brain which is the seat of the memory.",,19560,"","""But I shall content myself with telling you more about how the traces are imprinted on the internal part of the brain which is the seat of the memory.""","",2012-01-30 21:12:52 UTC,""
3866,"",Searching in EEBO-TCP,2014-07-28 15:15:41 UTC,"§. 5. The Understanding seems to me, not to have the least glimmering of any Ideas, which it doth not receive from one of these two: Eternal Objects furnish the Mind with the Ideas of sensible qualities, which are all those different perceptions they produced in us: And the Mind furnishes the Vnderstanding with Ideas of its own Operations. These, when we have taken a full survey of them, and their several modes, and the Compositions made out of them, we shall find to contain all our whole stock of Ideas; and that we have nothing in our Minds, which did not come in, one of these two ways. Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a mass of Knowledge soever he imagines to be lodged there, he will, upon taking a strict view, see that he has not any Idea in his Mind, but what one of those two have imprinted; though, perhaps, with infinite variety compounded and enlarged, by the Understanding, as we shall see hereafter.
(II.i.5, p. 38)",,24314,"","""Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a mass of Knowledge soever he imagines to be lodged there, he will, upon taking a strict view, see that he has not any Idea in his Mind, but what one of those two have imprinted; though, perhaps, with infinite variety compounded and enlarged, by the Understanding, as we shall see hereafter.""",Impressions,2014-07-28 15:15:54 UTC,""