text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"Never make a Friend on a sudden, for though the first Affection makes the deepest Impression, yet that Love is held most permanent which dives into the Soul by soft Degrees of mutual Society, and comes to be matured by Time.
(52)",2011-11-23 03:37:46 UTC,"""Never make a Friend on a sudden, for though the first Affection makes the deepest Impression, yet that Love is held most permanent which dives into the Soul by soft Degrees of mutual Society, and comes to be matured by Time.""",2011-11-23 03:37:46 UTC,Of Friendship,"",,"","",Searching in Google Books,19329,7128
"The situation of the places of our birth, the climate and temperature of the air, the circumstances of our parents, their humours and dispositions; but more especially their method of treating us in our infant years, I am persuaded give bias to our manners and actions, through the whole course of our lives. Our minds are like blank paper, as a great philosopher has observed, and the first impressions they receive are generally the most permanent and powerful. What is commonly and vulgarly called our natural temper is only what we acquire, after our births, from the example of those from whom we receive our institution, or upon whom we depend. And agreeable to this, the mild conduct of my parents, and the engaging tenderness of their behaviour to every body, certainly fixed that good humour and complacency in my soul, that no succeeding misfortune had ever the power to efface. My disposition, as the reader will have frequent occasion to observe, was serious, but not unpliant, was gentle, but not slavish. My countenance was open, and my spirit intrepid. But as my designs were not lost in the clouds of gaiety, so neither did they render my vain, conceited, and pedantic. [...]
(I.ii, p. 9-10)",2012-07-29 17:17:46 UTC,"""Our minds are like blank paper, as a great philosopher has observed, and the first impressions they receive are generally the most permanent and powerful.""",2012-07-29 17:02:57 UTC,"Volume I, Chapter ii",Blank Slate,,Writing,"","Reading Christopher Flint's The Appearance of Print in Eighteenth-Century Fiction (Cambridge UP, 2011), 81.",19906,7307
"Neither cou'd our Spy, considering his Education in the Mahometan Religion, take a properer Method, in my Opinion, to disengage himself from the Legends of the Nursery, and Fables of the Schools, (as a great man calls our Infant Idea's of things) than to follow the Counsel of his beloved des Cartes, the French Philosopher, whom he so much admired; and who advises every one that wou'd perfect his Reason, and arrive at the Knowledge of undisguised Truth, to shake off the Prepossessions and Prejudices of his Infancy and Youth; to wipe, brush, or sweep his Soul clean of the very Dust and Relicks left behind on our Faculties, by these first Foreign Invasions and Encroachments on our Minds. Having thus cleaned and polish'd the Soul, it becomes a pure Tabula Rasa, fit for the best or worst Impressions. And here's the first Start of the Free-Will: For, before this, a man is a perfect Slave, driven up and down by every Spirit that blows some Strength and Consistence in himself: Being able to say with interior and solid Reason: Cogito, ergo sum. Fixing there on this Foundation, he builds a Fortress, or Strong-Hold; from whence he defies all the Attempts of open Enemies, or sly secret interlopers [...]",2013-10-14 22:03:00 UTC,"""Having thus cleaned and polish'd the Soul, it becomes a pure Tabula Rasa, fit for the best or worst Impressions.""",2013-10-14 22:03:00 UTC,General Preface,"",,Writing,"","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",22999,4348
"When the dervise had done, the princess replied, By what I comprehend from your discourse, the difficulty of succeeding in this affair, is, first, the getting up to the cage, without being frightened at the terrible voices l shall hear; and secondly, not to look behind me: For this last, I hope I shall be mistress enough of myself to observe it. As to the first, I own, that those voices, such as you represent them to be, are capable of striking terror into the most undaunted: But as in all enterprizes and dangers every one may use art and management, I desire to know of you if I may make use of one of great importance. And what is that management you would make use of, said the dervise? To stop my ears so hard with cotton, answered the princess, that I may not hear the voices, and by that means prevent the impression they may make upon my mind, and that I may not lose the use of my reason.
(I, p. 464; cf. vol. xii, pp. 115-6 in ECCO)",2014-06-19 21:20:37 UTC,"""To stop my ears so hard with cotton, answered the princess, that I may not hear the voices, and by that means prevent the impression they may make upon my mind, and that I may not lose the use of my reason.""",2014-06-19 21:20:37 UTC,"","",,Impressions,"",Searching in Google Books,24052,7935
"Amongst Jusintha's Admirers was Loveless, a Man of a very small Estate, but of good Sense and great Discernment. He was so perfect a Judge of Womankind, that he soon found a Way to her Esteem; the Consequence of which ended in Hymen's banishing all Sorrow for some Time. But alas! this Harmony did not last long, Loveless was not like the grateful, generous Orsino, who view'd Jusintha's Faults with a Lover's Eye. These were Virtues unknown to him, who like the Ungrateful lessen'd the Obligations he had to her, by viewing his own Merit in the flattering Glass, his Fancy held before him. This false Mirror soon turn'd the Scale in his Favour, attributing her Choice of him to his own good Sense, which had Art enough to, overcome the Lightness of her Disposition. With this Turn of Mind, no Wonder Quarrels ensu'd. Jusintha, to drown Care, flies to all the Diversions the gay Town affords. Leonora was immediately taken from her Confinement, and initiated into all the Follies of the vain unthinking Part of Mankind. Her youthful Mind was delighted with a Variety of Pleasures. Not so Jusintha, Disappointment ever accompanied her Steps: The Idea of her lov'd Orsino presented itself to her distracted Imagination like an incens'd Lover to demand an Account of her Conduct: Which made such an Impression on her Mind, that she could scarce find Amusements for a few Hours, in all the Pleasures that surrounded her.
(pp. 14-16)",2014-07-30 13:24:57 UTC,"""The Idea of her lov'd Orsino presented itself to her distracted Imagination like an incens'd Lover to demand an Account of her Conduct: Which made such an Impression on her Mind, that she could scarce find Amusements for a few Hours, in all the Pleasures that surrounded her.""",2014-07-30 13:24:57 UTC,"","",,Impressions,"",Searching in Google Books,24367,8010
"The mind of man has been by some authors called a tabula rasa, and compared to a sheet of clean paper. But this principle, however generally received, may perhaps admit of some hesitation; especially if it should be found less salutary in its consequences than could be wished. One should imagine, that the human intellect, by its original constitution, easily admits and retains some impressions, as congenial to its nature, and faithful to their objects; whilst it repels others with aversion or disdain, as subversive of its happiness, and false to the things which they represent. Hence our frame, from its very origin, seems marked by the hand of nature with indubitable signatures of pre-eminence and distinction. Hence man assumes the important characters of a rational being and a moral agent. Hence his desires of happiness and truth are insatiable, and his capacities of enjoying them indefinite.
(Preface)",2014-09-01 16:21:27 UTC,"""One should imagine, that the human intellect, by its original constitution, easily admits and retains some impressions, as congenial to its nature, and faithful to their objects; whilst it repels others with aversion or disdain, as subversive of its happiness, and false to the things which they represent.""",2014-09-01 16:21:27 UTC,"","",,Impressions,"",Reading,24421,5519