text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"Women are everywhere, in this deplorable state; for, in order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any strength. Taught from infancy that beauty is a woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour. But were their understanding once emancipated from the slavery to which the pride and sensuality of man and their short-sighted desire, like that of the dominion of tyrants, of present sway, has subjected them, we should probably read of their weaknesses with surprise.
(p. 38)
",2013-10-28 16:54:42 UTC,"""Taught from infancy that beauty is a woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.""",2009-09-14 19:43:32 UTC,"","",,Rooms,"","Reading Harriet Guest's ""Eighteenth-century Feminity: 'a Supposed sexual Character'""",15394,5775
"There are, it is true, trials when the good man must appeal to God from the injustice of man; and amidst the whining candour of hissings of envy, erect a pavilion in his own mind to retire to till the rumour be overpast; nay, the darts of undeserved censure may pierce an innocent tender bosom through with many sorrows; but these are all exceptions to general rules. And it is according to common laws that human behavior ought to be regulated. The eccentric orbit of the comet never influences astronomical calculation respecting the invariable order established in the principal bodies of the solar system.
(p. 135)",2012-01-23 16:45:57 UTC,"""There are, it is true, trials when the good man must appeal to God from the injustice of man; and amidst the whining candour of hissings of envy, erect a pavilion in his own mind to retire to till the rumour be overpast.""",2009-09-14 19:43:32 UTC,Chapter VIII,"",,Rooms,•Human behavior and astrophysics: echoes of Hume? Paragraph that follows uses a landscape metaphor to describe man's character.,Reading,15396,5775
"Mrs. Macaulay has just observed, that ""there is but one fault which a woman of honour may not commit with impunity."" She then justly and humanely adds--""This has given rise to the trite and foolish observation, that the first fault against chastity in woman has a radical power to deprave the character. But no such frail beings come out of the hands of Nature. The human mind is built of nobler materials than to be easily corrupted; and with all their disadvantages of situation and education, women seldom become entirely abandoned till they are thrown into a state of desperation, by the venomous rancour of their own sex.""
(p. 137)",2012-01-23 18:23:38 UTC,"""The human mind is built of nobler materials than to be easily corrupted.""",2009-09-14 19:43:34 UTC,Chapter VIII,"",2012-01-23,Rooms,Quoting Macaulay,Reading,15409,5775
" Oh! horrid Night!
Thou prying Monitor confest!
Whose key unlocks the human breast,
And bares each avenue to mental sight!
When from the festive bow'r
The frenzied Homicide retreats,
And, in his bosom's cell,
Essays each rising throb to quell;
Thy penetrating pow'r
His sense with many a Phantom greets;
He rushes forth in wild amaze!
While down his brow the big drop strays;
Then, from thy mist opaque,
Deep groans assail his startled ears,
His limbs convuls'd with horror shake,
And the short fev'rish Hour,
Such is thy dreadful pow'r!
An Age of agonizing woe appears;
For Sleep the vengeful fiends deride,
Till the blest Sun darts forth to bid thy reign subside!",2009-09-14 19:45:37 UTC,"""When from the festive bow'r / The frenzied Homicide retreats, / And, in his bosom's cell, / Essays each rising throb to quell;""",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,Rooms,•I've included twice: Lock and Avenue,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),16073,6071
"Yet in my bosom's ruby cell
The philosophic lore shall live!
For who can sooth the mind so well,
With all the graceful Muse can give?
And when the dart pale Envy wings,
With recreant mischief aims at me,
I'll turn where polish'd Julius sings,
And mock the power of Destiny!",2009-09-14 19:45:37 UTC,"""Yet in my bosom's ruby cell / The philosophic lore shall live!""",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,Rooms,"•INTEREST. A ""ruby cell"" is a heart? If so, this is another case of metaphorical replacement. The trope would be invisible to me if I were only searching heart, mind, soul.",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),16074,6071
"Dr Price, when he reasons on the necessity of men attending some place of public worship, concisely obviates an objection that has been made in the form of an apology, by advising those, who do not approve of our Liturgy, and cannot find any mode of worship out of the church, in which they can conscientiously join, to establish one for themselves. This plain advice you have tortured into a very different meaning, and represented the preacher as actuated by a dissenting phrensy, recommending dissensions, ‘not to diffuse truth, but to spread contradictions.’ A simple question will silence this impertinent declamation.–What is truth? A few fundamental truths meet the first enquiry of reason, and appear as clear to an unwarped mind, as that air and bread are necessary to enable the body to fulfil its vital functions; but the opinions which men discuss with so much heat must be simplified and brought back to first principles; or who can discriminate the vagaries of the imagination, or scrupulosity of weakness, from the verdict of reason Let all these points be demonstrated, and not determined by arbitrary authority and dark traditions, lest a dangerous supineness should take place; for probably, in ceasing to enquire, our reason would remain dormant, and delivered up, without a curb, to every impulse of passion, we might soon lose sight of the clear light which the exercise of our understanding no longer kept alive. To argue from experience, it should seem as if the human mind, averse to thought, could only be opened by necessity; for, when it can take opinions on trust, it gladly lets the spirit lie quiet in its gross tenement. Perhaps the most improving exercise of the mind, confining the argument to the enlargement of the understanding, is the restless enquiries that hover on the boundary, or stretch over the dark abyss of uncertainty. These lively conjectures are the breezes that preserve the still lake from stagnating. We should be aware of confining all moral excellence to one channel, however capacious; or, if we are so narrow-minded, we should not forget how much we owe to chance that our inheritance was not Mahometism; and that the iron hand of destiny, in the shape of deeply rooted authority, has not suspended the sword of destruction over our heads. But to return to the misrepresentation.
(pp. 49-50)",2009-12-02 18:53:26 UTC,"""To argue from experience, it should seem as if the human mind, averse to thought, could only be opened by necessity; for, when it can take opinions on trust, it gladly lets the spirit lie quiet in its gross tenement.""",2009-12-02 18:53:00 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,17542,6611
"Observe, Sir, that I called your piety affectation. – A rant to enable you to point your venomous dart, and round your period. I speak with warmth, because, of all hypocrites, my soul most indignantly spurns a religious one; – and I very cautiously bring forward such a heavy charge, to strip you of your cloak of sanctity. Your speech at the time the bill for a regency was agitated now lies before me. – Then you could in direct terms, to promote ambitious or interested views, exclaim without any pious qualms –Ought they to make a mockery of him, putting a crown of thorns on his head, a reed in his hand, and dressing him in a raiment of purple, cry, Hail! King of the British!’ Where was your sensibility when you could utter this cruel mockery, equally insulting to God and man? Go hence, thou slave of impulse, look into the private recesses of thy heart, and take not a mote from thy brother’s eye, till thou hast removed the beam from thine own.
(p. 57)",2009-12-02 19:55:41 UTC,"""Go hence, thou slave of impulse, look into the private recesses of thy heart, and take not a mote from thy brother’s eye, till thou hast removed the beam from thine own.""",2009-12-02 19:55:18 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,17547,6611
"The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true. as I have heard from Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite. and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.
This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.
(Plate 14)",2013-04-25 19:00:31 UTC,"""If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.""",2013-04-25 19:00:31 UTC,"","",,Rooms,"",Reading,20144,7382
"Sonnet XLV.
On Leaving Part of Sussex
Farewel Aruna!--on whose varied shore
My early vows were paid to Nature's shrine,
When thoughtless joy, and infant hope were mine,
And whose lorn stream has heard me since deplore
Too many sorrows! Sighing I resign
Thy solitary beauties--and no more
Or on thy rocks, or in thy woods recline,
Or on the heath, by moon-light lingering, pore
On air-drawn phantoms--While in Fancy's ear
As in the evening wind thy murmurs swell,
The Enthusiast of the Lyre, who wander'd here,
Seems yet to strike his visionary shell,
Of power to call forth Pity's tenderest tear
Or wake wild frenzy--from her hideous cell!",2013-06-13 15:44:01 UTC,"""While in Fancy's ear / As in the evening wind thy murmurs swell, / The Enthusiast of the Lyre, who wander'd here, / Seems yet to strike his visionary shell, / Of power to call forth Pity's tenderest tear / Or wake wild frenzy--from her hideous cell!""",2013-06-13 15:44:01 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,20617,7427
"I am glad you think that a friend's having been persecuted, imprisoned, maimed, and almost murdered, under the ancient government of France, is a good excuse for loving the revolution. What, indeed, but friendship, could have led my attention from the annals of imagination to the records of politics; from the poetry to the prose of human life? In vain might Aristocrates have explained to me the rights of kings, and Democrates have descanted on the rights of the people. How many fine-spun threads of reasoning would my wandering thoughts have broken; and how difficult should I have found it to arrange arguments and inferences in the cells of my brain! But, however dull the faculties of my head, I can assure you, that when a proposition is addressed to my heart, I have some quickness of perception. I can then decide, in one moment, points upon which philosophers and legislators have differed in all ages: nor could I be more convinced of the truth of any demonstration in Euclid, than I am, that, that system of politics must be the best, by which those I love are made happy.
(Letter XXIII, p. 195; p. 140 in Broadview ed.)",2013-07-12 15:00:17 UTC,"""How many fine-spun threads of reasoning would my wandering thoughts have broken; and how difficult should I have found it to arrange arguments and inferences in the cells of my brain!""",2013-07-12 15:00:17 UTC,Letter XXIII,"",,Rooms,"",Reading; text from Google Books,21702,7542