work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5730,"","Searching ""throne"" and ""reason"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-07-19 00:00:00 UTC," 'Ah!' he cried,
'At that dear name my sear'd wound bleeds afresh.
''Tis music that would make a savage tame.
'It overwhelms, my soul, and my fond heart,
'Convuls'd at the sweet sound, recoils and faints.
'I have two souls (such impious sophistry
'Love teaches me) which, like two mighty Kings,
'Ever contending for the sov'reignty,
'Stir up sedition and revolt within me.
'While we converse together, and I feel
'Secret correction from the bolt of truth
'Shot home, my better soul in triumph rides,
'Borne on the wings of reason to her throne.
'But when Panthea with the rebel sides,
'She comes with power not to be withstood,
'Contends with reason's self, and overturns
'The throne of her adopted. Once again
'My better soul, by revolution strange,
'Sits on her throne. O Cyrus, I am thine
'Yet wholly. To confound thy foes I fly
'With all the good-will of an honest heart,
'Which never feels itself so much at large
'As when it serves so generous a friend.'
",,15269,"","'While we converse together, and I feel / 'Secret correction from the bolt of truth / 'Shot home, my better soul in triumph rides, / Borne on the wings of reason to her throne.""","",2009-12-02 19:26:45 UTC,""
6611,"",Reading,2009-12-02 17:46:21 UTC,"Not having leisure or patience to follow this desultory writer through all the devious tracks in which his fancy has started fresh game, I have confined my strictures, in a great measure, to the grand principles at which he has levelled many ingenious arguments in a very specious garb.
(p. 33)",,17526,"","""Not having leisure or patience to follow this desultory writer through all the devious tracks in which his fancy has started fresh game, I have confined my strictures, in a great measure, to the grand principles at which he has levelled many ingenious arguments in a very specious garb.""","",2009-12-02 17:46:21 UTC,Advertisement
6611,"",Reading,2009-12-02 18:05:48 UTC,"The civilization which has taken place in Europe has been very partial, and, like every custom that an arbitrary point of honour has established, refines the manners at the expence of morals, by making sentiments and opinions current in conversation that have no root in the heart, or weight in the cooler resolves of the mind. – And what has stopped its progress? – hereditary property – hereditary honours. The man has been changed into an artificial monster by the station in which he was born, and the consequent homage that benumbed his faculties like the torpedo’s touch; – or a being, with a capacity of reasoning, would not have failed to discover, as his faculties unfolded, that true happiness arose from the friendship and intimacy which can only be enjoyed by equals; and that charity is not a condescending distribution of alms, but an intercourse of good offices and mutual benefits, founded on respect for justice and humanity.
(p. 39)",,17531,Torpedo? The mind is a Body here? How to categorize? Animals or Body? REVISIT.,"""The man has been changed into an artificial monster by the station in which he was born, and the consequent homage that benumbed his faculties like the torpedo’s touch.""","",2009-12-02 18:05:48 UTC,""
6611,"",Reading,2009-12-02 18:29:53 UTC,"If I were not afraid to derange your nervous system by the bare mention of a metaphysical enquiry, I should observe, Sir, that self-preservation is, literally speaking, the first law of nature; and that the care necessary to support and guard the body is the first step to unfold the mind, and inspire a manly spirit of independence. The mewing babe in swaddling-clothes, who is treated like a superior being, may perchance become a gentleman; but nature must have given him uncommon faculties if, when pleasure hangs on every bough, he has sufficient fortitude either to exercise his mind or body in order to acquire personal merit. The passions are necessary auxiliaries of reason: a present impulse pushes us forward, and when we discover that the game did not deserve the chace, we find that we have gone over much ground, and not only gained many new ideas, but a habit of thinking. The exercise of our faculties is the great end, though not the goal we had in view when we started with such eagerness.
(p. 46)",,17537,"","""The passions are necessary auxiliaries of reason: a present impulse pushes us forward, and when we discover that the game did not deserve the chace, we find that we have gone over much ground, and not only gained many new ideas, but a habit of thinking.""","",2009-12-02 18:31:37 UTC,""
7238,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""bird"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2012-04-29 18:47:54 UTC,"What can such treasonable crimes atone,
Usurping, thus, their heavenly Sovereign's throne?
'Tis sacrilege; and Heav'n resents the wrongs,
When Creatures challenge what to Christ belongs!
'Tis Image-worship when a Mortal's shewn
The honours that pertain to God alone!
And are not such offences ever found,
In graceless Grandeur's fashionable round?
For is not all its glitter--all its gold--
Form'd into Images with Fancy's mould?
And tho' the Idol be a Knave or Fool,
When finish'd nice with Fashion's graving tool,
The reverence paid looks more or less divine,
In due proportion to the shew and shine.
All's calculated by the glow, and glare--
Frail, short-liv'd things their full affection share--
While Vanity unveils her whiffling flags,
Her glittering trinkets, and her tawdry rags--
Spreads spangled nets, and fills her philter'd bowl,
To fix each Sense, and fascinate the Soul--
Her birdlime twigs contrived with such sly Art,
That while they tangle thoughts, they trap the heart,
Thus to impair her strength, and spoil her wings,
No more to mount o'er temporary things,
But, drunk with spurious Pleasure--cag'd in State--
Forego true Freedom, and forget her Fate!",,19736,"","""While Vanity unveils her whiffling flags, / Her glittering trinkets, and her tawdry rags-- / Spreads spangled nets, and fills her philter'd bowl, / To fix each Sense, and fascinate the Soul-- / Her birdlime twigs contrived with such sly Art, / That while they tangle thoughts, they trap the heart, / Thus to impair her strength, and spoil her wings, / No more to mount o'er temporary things, / But, drunk with spurious Pleasure--cag'd in State-- / Forego true Freedom, and forget her Fate!""",Beasts,2012-04-29 18:47:54 UTC,""
7247,"","Searching ""reason"" and ""bird"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2012-04-30 16:28:59 UTC,"Tho' the Law's potent letter Ability puzzles,
We all know too well that it Innocence muzzles;
Like Loretto's old fane, it yields varlets a living,
And fools give it wealth, for the sake of the giving;
The Inns of Court tenants at random abuse it,
And turn it and twist it whenever they use it;
As children at fairs use their gingerbread breeches,
They lick off its gilding, and bite off its riches;
Its frame wants a head, like John Lade or the torso,
'Tis so hideous no effort can e'er make it more so;
'Tis the birdlime of reason to fasten our senses,
'Tis an engine to punish our moral offences;
Tho' 'tis cover'd with filth like the stairs of St. Peter's,
The senate are daily encrusting its features:
Tho' Wisdom and Worth bade gaunt Exigence send it,
Yet the more we survey it, the less comprehend it;
It is crooked, 'tis straight, it is square, it is round,
Like Gibbons' odd visage, or Salisbury pound:
'Tis a thing which rewards not the beings who find it,
And Hope and Despair play at bo-peep behind it:
'Tis more difficult far to be right ascertain'd,
Than the murrane inscription which Daniel explain'd:
Some tell you 'tis sable, and some swear 'tis white,
Some aver 'tis polluted, some big with delight;
But Truth owns it wond'rously guts every purse,
And proves Knavery's comfort, and Equity's curse.",,19747,"","""'Tis [the letter of the law] the birdlime of reason to fasten our senses.""",Beasts,2012-04-30 16:28:59 UTC,""
7293,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),2012-07-05 13:37:34 UTC," But let me not thus pond'ring, gaping, stand--
But, lo, I am not at my own command:
Bed, bosom, kiss, embraces, storm my brains,
And, lawless tyrants, bind my will in chains.
O lovely lass! too pow'rful are thy charms,
And fascination dwells within thy arms.
The passions join the fierce invading host;
And I and virtue are o'erwhelm'd and lost--
Passions that in a martingale should move;
Wild horses loosen'd by the hands of Love.
I'm off--alas! unworthy to be seen--
The bard, and Virtue a poor captive queen!
O Lais, should our deeds to sins amount,
Just Heav'n will place them all to thy account.
(pp. 42-3)",,19862,"OED: ""Horse Riding. A strap or arrangement of straps fastened at one end to the noseband, bit, or reins of a horse and at the other to its girth, in order to prevent it from rearing or throwing its head back, or to strengthen the action of the bit""","""The passions join the fierce invading host; / And I and virtue are o'erwhelm'd and lost-- / Passions that in a martingale should move; / Wild horses loosen'd by the hands of Love.""",Beasts,2012-07-05 13:37:34 UTC,""
7382,"",Reading,2013-04-25 19:11:05 UTC,"My friend the Angel climb'd up from his station into the mill; I remain'd alone, & then this appearance was no more, but I found myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moon light hearing a harper who sung to the harp. & his theme was, The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind.
(Plate 19)",,20146,"","""The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind.""",Animals,2013-04-25 19:11:05 UTC,""
7426,"",Reading,2013-06-13 15:41:23 UTC,"Sonnet XLII.
Composed During a Walk on the Downs, in November 1787
The dark and pillowy cloud; the sallow trees,
Seem o'er the ruins of the year to mourn;
And cold and hollow, the inconstant breeze
Sobs thro' the falling leaves and wither'd fern.
O'er the tall brow of yonder chalky bourn,
The evening-shades their gather'd darkness fling,
While, by the lingering light, I scarce discern
The shrieking night-jar, sail on heavy wing.
Ah! yet a little--and propitious Spring
Crown'd with fresh flowers, shall wake the woodland strain;
But no gay change revolving seasons bring,
To call forth pleasure from the soul of pain,
Bid Syren Hope resume her long lost part,
And chase the vulture Care--that feeds upon the heart.",,20616,"","""Bid Syren Hope resume her long lost part, / And chase the vulture Care--that feeds upon the heart.""",Animals,2013-06-13 15:41:23 UTC,""
7591,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2013-08-16 06:34:44 UTC,"Let those who possess the talents, or the virtues, by which he was distinguished, avoid similar wretchedness, by guarding their minds against the influence of passion; since, if it be once suffered to acquire an undue ascendency over reason, we shall in vain attempt to controul its power: we might as soon arrest the winds in their violence, or stop the torrent in its course. It is too late to rear the mounds of defence when the impetuous flood rages in its strength, and overthrows all opposition. With a frame labouring under disease, we may recall, with regret, the blissful hours of health; but have no power to new string the nerves, or shake off the malady that loads the springs of life. Alas! the distempered heart, when it has suffered the disorders of passion to gain strength, can find no balsam in nature to heal their malignancy; no remedy but death. In vain we may lament the loss of our tranquillity; for peace, like the wandering dove, has forsaken its habitation in the bosom, and will return no more.
(II.xxxiv, pp. 238-9)",,22204,"","""In vain we may lament the loss of our tranquillity; for peace, like the wandering dove, has forsaken its habitation in the bosom, and will return no more.""",Animals,2013-08-16 06:34:44 UTC,Vol. II