updated_at,id,text,theme,metaphor,work_id,reviewed_on,provenance,created_at,comments,context,dictionary
2009-09-14 19:35:27 UTC,10985,"Here it was I had sufficient Occasion to exercise my passive Courage, and become a miserable Pattern of Patience. Here it was I stood in need of more Philosophy than I really posses'd, wherewith to bubble my Fancy, and cheat my Understanding, with that wild Notion, that a virtuous Man can never be unhappy, because he bears his Happiness in himself. I endeavour'd to apply that Stoical Receipt, but found it very fallible. I frequently ask'd myself why I could not be as happy in that Restraint, as formerly in the voluntary Prison with my Father; but the Answer was obvious, That ones own Will and Choice renders a Dungeon a Palace; and, on the contrary, a Heaven would be no longer so without Exilia. Thus I pass'd my tedious [Page 150] Hours, 'till one Day the Captain of the Guard, who succeeded me, being a Roman, came to visit me, and made me divers Complements and Assurances of his Desire to serve me, adding, that it was a great Affliction to him to see me ruin my Fortune, and perhaps lose my Life for one who deserv'd it not. Ah me! (reply'd I) she deserves more than I can make manifest: One may as well say the heavenly Bodies shine not, or Fire warms not, or any Thing in Nature has not its proper Qualities, as to say she deserves not. Ah! Exilia, I know her vertuous Inclinations for me; I remember the Promise she made me; I am sensible of what she suffers for me; but no Sufferings, nor Death itself, is capable to alienate her Affections from one single Moment, though never so long absent; for our Love is all Soul, and needs not the Supplement of Conversation to keep it alive; its Being is pure and immortal, as those Gods that infus'd it into our Hearts, and shall survive all Opposition. Alas! reply'd the Captain, I am sorry to find your Wisdom so impos'd upon; but when once Passion blinds us, Passion misguides us, Passion overthrows us, Passion destroys us, and no Passion so strong and so deceitful as that of Love; Love rocks our Reason into a Lethargy, and then does what it pleases with the rest of our Interior; it fools the wise Man, and infeebles the [Page 151] strong; it makes the Philosopher become a Fop, and the Divine a Madman; the soft Courtier becomes fierce, and the Warrior effeminate; it makes the Poor cease to earn their Bread, and the rich Usurer squander his hard gotten Wealth; it makes the best Friends become mortal Enemies, and one's Benefactor become one's Adversary. All these, and thousands of other Ills attend this unfortunate Passion; and after all, be recompens'd with Scorn or Falshood: The Truth of which, your Experience, or this Letter, may evince; withal giving me a Letter from Exilia, containing these Words:
(pp. 149-51)","","""[W]hen once Passion blinds us, Passion misguides us, Passion overthrows us, Passion destroys us, and no Passion so strong and so deceitful as that of Love; Love rocks our Reason into a Lethargy, and then does what it pleases with the rest of our Interior""",4211,,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2005-08-09 00:00:00 UTC,•I've included twice: Revolution and Interiority,"Vol 1, Book 4",""
2014-04-28 19:03:31 UTC,23163,"The same Author, in the same Book, writes more of the said Contest as follows.* Superstition, and Despair of Eternal Salvation are wont to imprint on the sensitive Soul, the Blood and Body, in a manner the like affects of Melancholy, as Love and Jealousie, tho' some way after a different manner of affecting; for in the former, the Object whose getting or loss is in danger, is wholly Immateral, and its design being first conceiv'd by the Rational Soul, is Imprinted on the Corporeal; in the prosecution of which, if this readily obeys, then no Perturbation of a Man's Mind arises; but if the Corporeal Soul withstanding, as it often happens, the Rational still insists with Admonitions and Threats, presently the other growing hot, moves the Blood and Spirits after a disorderly manner, opposes Corporeal Goods and Pleasures, to the Spiritual presented by the Understanding, and endeavours to draw the Man to her side; and as thus there is a continual struggle betwixt the two Souls, and sometimes the Will is Superior, sometimes the sensitive Appetite prevails; at length a Court of Conscience is erected by the Mind, where all particular Acts are scrupulously examined, by reason of these frequent Variances of the Souls, the Animal Spirits, as being too much, and in a manner perpetually exercised, and being commanded here and there contrary ways, and almost distracted, fall somewhat at length from their Vigour, and Natural Disposition, and at last being rendred fixt and melancholick, as they are detained from their wonted Expansion, they frame out of Course, and unusal traces in the Brain, and so cause a Delirium, with an excess of Fear and Sadness. In those kinds of affects, the Corporeal Soul being carryed away, as it were by Violence, both Divorces it self from the Body, and being modified according to the Character of the Idea imprinted, is wont to take a New Species, either Angelical, or Diabolical; mean while the Understanding, inasmuch as the Imagination suggests to it only discorderly and monstrous Notions, is wholly perverted from the use of the right Reason.
(X, pp. 319-20)
*. Dissert. 2. c. d' Melanc.","","""At length a Court of Conscience is erected by the Mind, where all particular Acts are scrupulously examined, by reason of these frequent Variances of the Souls, the Animal Spirits, as being too much, and in a manner perpetually exercised, and being commanded here and there contrary ways, and almost distracted, fall somewhat at length from their Vigour, and Natural Disposition, and at last being rendred fixt and melancholick, as they are detained from their wonted Expansion, they frame out of Course, and unusal traces in the Brain, and so cause a Delirium, with an excess of Fear and Sadness.""",7626,,Searching in ECCO-TCP; found again.,2013-11-10 19:13:41 UTC,"","",Court