text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"Now I maintain that when God unites a rational soul to this machine (in a way that I intend to explain later) he will place its principal seat in the brain, and will make its nature such that the soul will have different sensations corresponding to the different ways in which the entrances to the pores in the internal surface of the brain are opened by means of the nerves.",2012-01-30 21:04:04 UTC,"""Now I maintain that when God unites a rational soul to this machine (in a way that I intend to explain later) he will place its principal seat in the brain, and will make its nature such that the soul will have different sensations corresponding to the different ways in which the entrances to the pores in the internal surface of the brain are opened by means of the nerves.""",2012-01-30 21:03:52 UTC,"","",,Throne,"",Reading,19555,3623
"If you have ever had the curiosity to examine the organs in our churches, you know how the bellows push the air into certain receptacles (which are called, presumably for this reason, wind-chests). And you know how the air passes from there into one or other of the pipes, depending on the different ways in which the organist moves his fingers on the keyboard. You can think of our machine's heart and arteries, which push the animal spirits into the cavities of its brain, as being like the bellows of an organ, which push air into the wind-chests; and you can think of external objects, which stimulate certain nerves and cause spirits contained in the cavities to pass into some of the pores, as being like the fingers of the organist, which press certain keys and cause the air to pass from the wind-chests into certain pipes. Now the harmony of an organ does not depend on the externally visible arrangement of the pipes or on the shape of the wind-chests or other parts. It depends solely on three factors: the air which comes from the bellows, the pipes which make the sound, and the distribution of the air in the pipes. In just the same way, I would point out, the functions we are concerned with here do not depend at all on the external shape of the visible parts which anatomists distinguish in the substance of the brain, or on the shape of the brain's cavities, but solely on three factors: the spirits which come from the heart, the pores of the brain through which they pass, and the way in which the spirits are distributed in these pores. Thus my sole task here is to give an orderly account of the most important features of these three factors.",2012-01-30 21:05:43 UTC,"""You can think of our machine's heart and arteries, which push the animal spirits into the cavities of its brain, as being like the bellows of an organ, which push air into the wind-chests; and you can think of external objects, which stimulate certain nerves and cause spirits contained in the cavities to pass into some of the pores, as being like the fingers of the organist, which press certain keys and cause the air to pass from the wind-chests into certain pipes.""",2012-01-30 21:05:43 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,19556,3623
"Now, the substance of the brain being soft and pliant, its cavities would be very narrow and almost all closed (as they appear in the brain of a corpse) if no spirits entered them. But the source which produces these spirits is usually so abundant that they enter these cavities in sufficient quantity to have the force to push out against the surrounding matter and make it expand, thus tightening all the tiny nerve-fibres which come from it (in the way that a moderate wind can inflate the sails of a ship and tighten all the ropes to which the sails are attached). It follows that at such times the machine is disposed to respond to all the actions of the spirits, and hence it represents the body of a man who is awake. Or at least the spirits have enough force to push against some parts of the surrounding matter in this way, and so make it tight, while the other parts remain free and relaxed (as happens in parts of a sail when the wind is a little too weak to fill it). At such times the machine represents the body of a man who is asleep and who has various dreams as he sleeps.",2012-01-30 21:07:16 UTC,"""But the source which produces these spirits is usually so abundant that they enter these cavities in sufficient quantity to have the force to push out against the surrounding matter and make it expand, thus tightening all the tiny nerve-fibres which come from it (in the way that a moderate wind can inflate the sails of a ship and tighten all the ropes to which the sails are attached).""",2012-01-30 21:07:16 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,19557,3623
"Now among these figures, it is not those imprinted on the external sense organs, or on the internal surface of the brain, which should be taken to be ideas--but only those which are traced in the spirits on the surface of the gland (where the seat of the imagination and the 'common' sense is located). That is to say, it is only the latter figures which should be taken to be the forms or images which the rational soul united to this machine will consider directly when it imagines some object or perceives it by the senses.",2012-01-30 21:16:15 UTC,"""Now among these figures, it is not those imprinted on the external sense organs, or on the internal surface of the brain, which should be taken to be ideas--but only those which are traced in the spirits on the surface of the gland (where the seat of the imagination and the 'common' sense is located).""",2012-01-30 21:10:17 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Throne,"",Reading,19558,3623
"Now among these figures, it is not those imprinted on the external sense organs, or on the internal surface of the brain, which should be taken to be ideas--but only those which are traced in the spirits on the surface of the gland (where the seat of the imagination and the 'common' sense is located). That is to say, it is only the latter figures which should be taken to be the forms or images which the rational soul united to this machine will consider directly when it imagines some object or perceives it by the senses.",2012-01-30 21:11:27 UTC,"""That is to say, it is only the latter figures which should be taken to be the forms or images which the rational soul united to this machine will consider directly when it imagines some object or perceives it by the senses.""",2012-01-30 21:11:27 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,19559,3623
"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.",2012-01-30 21:12:52 UTC,"""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,"","",,"","",Reading,19560,3623
"To this end, suppose that after the spirits leaving gland H have received the impression of some idea, they pass through tubes 2, 4, 6, and the like, into the pores or gaps lying between the tiny fibres which make up part B of the brain. And suppose that the spirits are strong enough to enlarge these gaps somewhat, and to bend and arrange in various ways any fibres they encounter, according to the various ways in which the spirits are moving and the different openings of the tubes into which they pass. Thus they also trace figures in these gaps, which correspond to those of the objects. At first they do this less easily and perfectly than they do on gland H, but gradually they do it better and better, as their action becomes stronger and lasts longer, or is repeated more often. That is why these figures are no longer so easily erased, and why they are preserved in such a way that the ideas which were previously on the gland can be formed again long afterwards without requiring the presence of the objects to which they correspond. And this is what memory consists in.",2012-01-30 21:18:43 UTC,"""Thus they also trace figures in these gaps, which correspond to those of the objects. At first they do this less easily and perfectly than they do on gland H, but gradually they do it better and better, as their action becomes stronger and lasts longer, or is repeated more often. That is why these figures are no longer so easily erased, and why they are preserved in such a way that the ideas which were previously on the gland can be formed again long afterwards without requiring the presence of the objects to which they correspond. And this is what memory consists in.""",2012-01-30 21:18:43 UTC,"","",,Writing,"",Reading,19561,3623
"I should like you to consider, after this, all the functions I have ascribed to this machine -- such as the digestion of food, the beating of the heart and arteries, the nourishment and growth of the limbs, respiration, waking and sleeping, the reception by the external sense organs of light, sounds, smells, tastes, heat and other such qualities, the imprinting of the ideas of these qualities in the organ of the 'common' sense and the imagination, the retention or stamping of these ideas in the memory, the internal movements of the appetites and passions, and finally the external movements of all the limbs (movements which are so appropriate not only to the actions of objects presented to the senses, but also to the passions and the impressions found in the memory, that they imitate perfectly the movements of a real man). I should like you to consider that these functions follow from the mere arrangement of the machine's organs every bit as naturally as the movements of a clock or other automaton follow from the arrangement of its counter-weights and wheels. In order to explain these functions, then, it is not necessary to conceive of this machine as having any vegetative or sensitive soul or other principle of movement and life, apart from its blood and its spirits, which are agitated by the heat of the fire burning continuously in its heart -- a fire which has the same nature as all the fires that occur in inanimate bodies.",2012-01-30 21:20:40 UTC,"""I should like you to consider, after this, all the functions I have ascribed to this machine -- such as the digestion of food, the beating of the heart and arteries, the nourishment and growth of the limbs, respiration, waking and sleeping, the reception by the external sense organs of light, sounds, smells, tastes, heat and other such qualities, the imprinting of the ideas of these qualities in the organ of the 'common' sense and the imagination, the retention or stamping of these ideas in the memory, the internal movements of the appetites and passions, and finally the external movements of all the limbs (movements which are so appropriate not only to the actions of objects presented to the senses, but also to the passions and the impressions found in the memory, that they imitate perfectly the movements of a real man).""",2012-01-30 21:20:40 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,19562,3623
"Now if you reply that it is onely the parts of her body, that moving by a kind of undulation protrude one another forwards, as Palmer-worms (which we call Wool-boys,) and some sort of Caterpillars do: To this I answer, that do but intensly observe any one of the former spots or clouds, and you shall see it go quite along from the tail to the head, keeping alwayes an equal distance from the precedent and subsequent spot: so that it is far more ingenious to believe it to be a gale of Animal Spirits, that, moving from her head along her back to her tail, and thence along her belly to her head again, is the cause of her progressive motion.
(p. 39)",2014-07-28 16:01:03 UTC,"""To this I answer, that do but intensly observe any one of the former spots or clouds, and you shall see it go quite along from the tail to the head, keeping alwayes an equal distance from the precedent and subsequent spot: so that it is far more ingenious to believe it to be a gale of Animal Spirits, that, moving from her head along her back to her tail, and thence along her belly to her head again, is the cause of her progressive motion.""",2014-07-28 16:01:03 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,24324,7986
"Now the Spirits that are lodged in all the meats and drinks we receive, being more or less fixed therein; What does the Soul, but (like an excellent Chymist) in this internal Laboratory of Man, by a fermentation of our nourishment in the stomach and guts, a filtration thereof through the Lacteae, a digestion in the Heart, a Circulation and Rectification in the Veins and Arteries: what does she, I say, by these several Physico-Chymical operations, but strive all this while to unfix, exalt, and volatilize the Spirits conteined in our nutriment, that so they may be transmitted to the Brain, and its divarications, and in that reconditory kept and reposited for her use and service.
(p. 65) ",2014-07-28 16:02:10 UTC,"""What does the Soul, but (like an excellent Chymist) in this internal Laboratory of Man, by a fermentation of our nourishment in the stomach and guts, a filtration thereof through the Lacteae, a digestion in the Heart, a Circulation and Rectification in the Veins and Arteries: what does she, I say, by these several Physico-Chymical operations, but strive all this while to unfix, exalt, and volatilize the Spirits conteined in our nutriment, that so they may be transmitted to the Brain, and its divarications, and in that reconditory kept and reposited for her use and service.""",2014-07-28 16:02:10 UTC,"","",,Rooms,"","Reading Joanna Picciotto, Labors of Innocence in Early Modern England. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), 261.",24325,7986