work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4582,Lockean Philosophy,Searching in ECCO,2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"To express this to us by Similitudes both just and beautiful; some Philosophers compare an human Soul to an empty Cabinet, of inexpressible Value for the Matter and Workmanship: and particularly, for the wonderful Contrivance of it, as having all imaginable Conveniencies within, for treasuring up Jewels and Curiousities of every kind.--But then we ourselves must collect and sort them, and we shall ill deserve such a Present from the Maker, if we either keep it empty, or fill it with Trifles; nay, if we do not, as we have opportunity, furnish and enrich it with whatsoever is of use or worth in Art or nature.----This ought indeed to be the main Business of our Lives.--Others, with equal truth and justice, have likened the Minds of Children to a rasa Tabula, or white Paper, whereon we may imprint, or write what Characters we please; which will prove so lasting, as not to be effaced without injuring or destroying the Beauty of the whole; even as Experience shews, and the Son of Sirach advises, My son gather instruction from thy youth up: so shalt thou find wisdom, till thine old age.--These first Characters therefore ought to be deeply and [end page 7] beautifully struck, and the Learning they express should be of great Price. And this, if timely Care be taken, may be done with ease because the Mind is then soft and tender: and because Truth and Right are by the nature of Things, as pleasant to the Soul, as Light and Proportion to the Eye, or as sweet as Honey to the Taste. But if such Impressions be not made, either ignorance and Folly will prevail; or Errors and Prejudices will take possession, and afterwards prevent the Knowledge of Wisdom from entring or striking on the Mind with its innate force and lustre. And when once we have lost our natural Sense and Love of Truth and Right, and when the Light within us is become Darkness, how great must that Darkness be, and how irretrievable the Misery of such a State? Wise there was the caution of our blessed Master, who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, Take heed, that the Light which is in thee be not Darkness.
(pp. 7-8)",2012-04-17,12053,"•I've included twice: Cabinet and Jewel
•Cross-reference: compare previous. Do Bernard and Denne crib from the same script?","""To express this to us by Similitudes both just and beautiful; some Philosophers compare an human Soul to an empty Cabinet, of inexpressible Value for the Matter and Workmanship: and particularly, for the wonderful Contrivance of it, as having all imaginable Conveniencies within, for treasuring up Jewels and Curiousities of every kind.""",Rooms,2012-04-17 20:26:56 UTC,""
7688,"",Reading,2013-09-23 21:28:38 UTC,"A superficial Knowledge of human Nature, will never qualify a Man to be a Writer of Characters. He must be a Master of the Science; and be able to lead a Reader, knowingly, thro’ that Labyrinth of the Passions, which fill the Heart of Man, and make him either a noble or a despicable Creature. For tho’ some, who have never attempted any thing of this kind, may think it an easy Matter to write two or three Pages of Morality with Spirit, to describe an Action, a Passion, a Manner; yet had they made the Experiment, the Event wou’d not have answer’d their Expectation, and they wou’d have found, that this easy Work was more difficult than they, at first, imagin’d.
(p. 31)",,22847,"","""He must be a Master of the Science; and be able to lead a Reader, knowingly, thro’ that Labyrinth of the Passions, which fill the Heart of Man, and make him either a noble or a despicable Creature.""","",2013-09-23 21:28:38 UTC,""
5011,"",Searching in Google Books,2014-02-05 15:47:20 UTC,"But when the Ancients are said to hold the Pre- and Post-existence of the Soul, and therefore to attribute a proper Eternity to it, we must not suppose, that they understood it to be eternal in its distinct and peculiar Existence; but that it was discerped from the Substance of God, in time; and would, in time, be rejoined, and resolved into it again. Which they explained by a Bottle's being filled with Sea Water, that swimming there a while, on the Bottle's breaking, flowed in again, and mingled with the common Mass. They only differed about the Time of this Reunion and Resolution: The greater Part holding it to be at Death, but the Pythagoreans not till after many Transmigrations. The Platonists went between these two Opinions: and rejoined pure and unpolluted Souls, immediately on Death, to the universal Spirit. But those which had contracted much Defilement, were sent into a Succession of other Bodies, to purge and purify them, before they returned to their Parent Substance. And these were the two sorts of the natural Metempsychosis, which we have observed above, to have been really held by those two Schools of Philosophy.
(III.iv, p. 384)",,23357,"","""Which they explained by a Bottle's being filled with Sea Water, that swimming there a while, on the Bottle's breaking, flowed in again, and mingled with the common Mass.""","",2014-02-05 15:47:20 UTC,"Book III, section 4, "