work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3862,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""lamp"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-01-18 00:00:00 UTC,"Such, Sir, is yours, that, uncontroul'd as Fate,
In the black bosom of o're-shading Night,
Can Sons of immortality create,
To dazle Envy with prevailing Light.
In vain they strive your glorious Lamp to hide
In that dark Lanthorn to all noble minds,
Which, through the smallest cranny is descry'd,
Whose force united no resistance finds.",,9914,"","""In vain they strive your glorious Lamp to hide / In that dark Lanthorn to all noble minds, / Which, through the smallest cranny is descry'd, / Whose force united no resistance finds""","",2009-09-14 19:34:34 UTC,""
3885,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),2004-06-14 00:00:00 UTC,"THE DISCOURAGEMENT
What wou'd the wise men's Censure be,
I wonder, should they hear me say
I was resolv'd to throw my Books away;
How wou'd some scorn, and others pitty me!
Sure he's in love, 'tis for some Charming Eve
That he like Adam Paradise does leave.
This only difference would be
Between my great Gandsire, and me,
That I my Paradise forego
For want of appetite to know.
'Tis not that Knowledge I despise;
No, you misconstrue my design;
Or that t' Enthusiasm I incline
And hope by Inspiration to be wise.
'Tis not for this I bid my Books adieu,
No, I love Learning full as well as you,
And have the Arts great Circle run
With as much Vigour as the Sun
His Zodiac treads, till t'other day
A thought surpris'd me in my way.
Thought I, for any thing I know,
What we have stamp'd for science here,
Does only the Appearance of it wear
And will not pass above, tho Current here below;
Perhaps they've other rules to reason by,
And what's Truth here, with them's Absurdity.
We Truth by a Refracted ray
View, like the Sun at Ebb of day:
Whom the gross, treacherous Atmosphere
Makes where it is not, to appear.
Why then shall I with sweat and pain
Digg Mines of disputable Oar?
My labour's certain, so is not my store,
I may hereafter unlearn all again.
Why then for Truth do I my Spirits waste,
When after all I may be guil'd at last?
So when the honest Patriarch thought
With seven years labour he had bought
His Rachels Love, by morning light
He found the errour of the night.
Or grant some Knowledge dwells below,
'Tis but for some few years to stay
Till I'm set loose from this dark House of Clay,
And in an Instant I shall all things know.
Then shall I learn t' Accumulate Degrees
And be at once made Master of all Sciences.
What need I then great Summs lay out,
And that Estate with care forestall,
Which when few years are come about,
Into my hands of Course will fall?
",,10058,•INTEREST. A poem in which a philosopher despairs of philosophy. Poem bears witness to Norris's Platonism/Malebranchism,"""We Truth by a Refracted ray / View, like the Sun at Ebb of day: / Whom the gross, treacherous Atmosphere / Makes where it is not, to appear.""","",2013-06-26 16:11:20 UTC,""
3889,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"So had her children too; for charity
Was not more fruitful, or more kind, than she:
Each under other by degrees they grew;
A goodly perspective of distant view.
Anchises looked not with so pleased a face,
In numbering o'er his future Roman race,
And marshalling the heroes of his name,
As, in their order, next to light they came;
Nor Cybele, with half so kind an eye,
Surveyed her sons and daughters of the sky;
Proud, shall I say, of her immortal fruit?
As far as pride with heavenly minds may suit.
[2]Her pious love excelled to all she bore;
New objects only multiplied it more.
And as the chosen found the pearly grain
As much as every vessel could contain;
As in the blissful vision each shall share
As much of glory as his soul can bear;
So did she love, and so dispense her care.
Her eldest thus, by consequence, was best,
As longer cultivated than the rest.
The babe had all that infant care beguiles,
And early knew his mother in her smiles:
But when dilated organs let in day
To the young soul, and gave it room to play,
At his first aptness, the maternal love
Those rudiments of reason did improve:
The tender age was pliant to command;
Like wax it yielded to the forming hand:
True to the artificer, the laboured mind
With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind;
Soft for impression, from the first prepared,
Till virtue with long exercise grew hard:
With every act confirmed, and made at last
So durable as not to be effaced,
It turned to habit; and, from vices free,
Goodness resolved into necessity.",2009-03-23,10065,"","""But when dilated organs let in day / To the young soul, and gave it room to play, / At his first aptness, the maternal love / Those rudiments of reason did improve.""","",2009-09-14 19:34:41 UTC,""
3946,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry); Browsing in EEBO,2004-06-22 00:00:00 UTC,"The Passions still predominant will rule:
Uncivil, rude, nor bred in Reason's School:
Our Understanding they with darkness fill,
Cause strange Conceptions, and pervert the Will.
On these the Soul, as on some flowing tide,
Must sit, and on the swelling Billows ride;
Hurry'd away, for how can be withstood
Th' Impetuous Torrent of the boyling blood?
Be gone false hopes, for all our Learning's vain,
Can we be free when these the rule maintain?
These are the tools of Knowledge which we use,
The spirits heated will strange things produce.
Tell me who e'er the Passions could controul,
Or from the body disengage the soul:
Till this is done, our best persuits are vain
To conquer Truth, and unmixt knowledge gain.
(p. 6)",2011-07-18,10236,•CROSS-REFERENCE: These lines reappear in Reason: A Poem.,"""Our Understanding they [the passions] with darkness fill, / Cause strange Conceptions, and pervert the Will.""","",2011-07-18 19:10:15 UTC,""
3963,"","Searching ""breast"" and ""lamp"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-01-20 00:00:00 UTC,"But you my Friends, to my Discourse attend,
And weigh my Words your Errors to amend.
For hitherto I can't among you find,
One of a clear, judicious, equal Mind.
You would in vain my Expectations raise,
(If I Repent) of future prosp'rous Days.
For my appointed Hours are almost past,
My Hopes and Projects Death will quickly blast.
The Lamp of Life burns dimly in my Breast,
Soon from its beating toil my weary Heart will rest.
If for a happy Change you lay a Scheme,
You but amuse me with an empty Dream,
Terrestrial Joys are but an idle Theme.
With my Designs and anxious Thoughts I part,
Farewel ye Cares, that once possest my Heart.
I to my Sorrows only can attend,
In groans the Day, in groans the Night I spend.
If Grief and Woe denominate the Night,
I ne'er enjoy the Day, or see the Light.
The gloomy Terrors that my Soul surround,
Efface its marks, and Day with Night confound.",,10324,"","""The Lamp of Life burns dimly in my Breast, / Soon from its beating toil my weary Heart will rest.""","",2009-09-14 19:34:53 UTC,""
3946,"",Reading in EEBO,2011-07-18 19:37:59 UTC,"Unhappy Man who through successive years
To Life's last Ebb, from early Childhood Errs!
No sooner born, but proves a Foe to Truth:
For Infant Reason is o'er powr'd in Youth;
The Cheats of sense will half our Learning share:
And Preconceptions all our knowledge are.
Reason 'tis true, should over sense preside,
Correct our Notions and our Judgments guide;
But false Opinions, rooted in the mind
Hood-wink the Soul, and keep the Reason blind;
Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns:
A Languid Flame that glows and dies by turns:
We see't a while, and but a little way
We travel by its Light, as Men by Day;
But quickly dying, it forsakes us soon;
Like Morning Stars that never stay till Noon.
(p. 5)",,18914,"","""Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns: / A Languid Flame that glows and dies by turns: / We see't a while, and but a little way / We travel by its Light, as Men by Day; / But quickly dying, it forsakes us soon; / Like Morning Stars that never stay till Noon.""","",2011-07-18 19:38:18 UTC,""
3876,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-19 19:32:58 UTC,"That we do Hear and See, we all do grant,
But of the manner how, are Ignorant.
If then in things within us we may err,
With which each Moment we'er familiar:
What hope remains, that we the Truth should find
Of things without, by our deluded Mind?
The Sense deceivs us, and like Painted Glass
Tinges all Objects, that do thrô it pass.
(ll. 68-75)",,21026,"","""The Sense deceivs us, and like Painted Glass / Tinges all Objects, that do thrô it pass.""","",2013-06-19 19:32:58 UTC,""
3938,"",C-H Lion,2013-07-02 18:42:30 UTC,"Olbar was first a mild and prudent Guide,
Who o'er Britannia 's Churches did preside.
Nor Care nor Pains th'Indulgent Pastor spar'd,
Nor Vigilance his Flock to Feed and Guard.
His Erudition did their Reverence move,
And his diffusive Charity their Love.
His Christian Temper oft Contention charm'd,
And the hot Bigots of all Sects disarm'd.
By Moderation, Patience, Gentleness
And Candor which to all he did express.
He ever strove th'Erroneous to reduce,
Who to the Church Obedience did refuse.
But he Employ'd to set their Judgments right,
No Force but Reason's mild but powerful Light.
Resolv'd on Truth and not on Power to stand
He did the Lictors of the Church disband.
(Bk V, p. 144, ll. 604-619)",,21423,"","""But he Employ'd to set their Judgments right, / No Force but Reason's mild but powerful Light.""","",2013-07-02 18:42:30 UTC,Book V
3938,"",C-H Lion,2013-07-02 18:54:29 UTC,"We therefore must the Deity conceive
By such an Image as our Senses give.
Spirits to us this only way are known,
And such Conceptions we must form or none.
Why then should Statues be condemn'd, design'd
To raise Devotion in a Pious Mind,
When if we think of God, within our Thought
Some Image of his Being must be wrought?
The Sacred Volumes oft th'Almighty name
As having Parts and Limbs and Humane Frame.
Th'Eternal to our Minds by Words and Ways
Adapted to our Sense himself conveys,
Whose Being still must be from Man conceal'd,
If not by means that fit our State reveal'd.
These Arguments my yielding Reason sway'd,
When Worship first to Images I paid.
And these with Clovis too would soon succeed,
Were first your Mind from Prepossession freed.
Oh, let no groundless Prejudice oppose
The Light, that from so pure a Fountain flows.
May these kind Beams dispel the Clouds, and find
An unobstructed Passage to your Mind.
Thus you'll preserve your Life with guiltless Art,
And still remain a Christian in your Heart.
(Bk VIII, p. 215, ll. 337-360)",,21429,"","""Oh, let no groundless Prejudice oppose / The Light, that from so pure a Fountain flows. / May these kind Beams dispel the Clouds, and find / An unobstructed Passage to your Mind.""","",2013-07-02 18:54:29 UTC,Book VIII
3938,"",C-H Lion,2013-07-02 18:58:16 UTC,"And thus their Innocence had been secure,
And while the Knee had err'd, the Heart been pure.
Those who alledge we cannot form a Thought
But by some Image thro' our Senses brought;
And therefore we th'Almighty must conceive,
By some Idea which the Senses give,
Will soon th'erroneous Argument detect,
When on their own Conceptions they reflect.
Sense do's, 'tis true, it's Object first enjoy,
And that first Object do's our Thoughts employ.
All Knowledge previous to the acts of Sense
And in-born Notions, are a vain Pretence.
But then, 'tis true, that when our Minds embrace
Those Images which thro' our Senses pass,
They stop not there, but quickly higher go,
And on themselves reflecting Know they Know.
They their own Actions oft review, and thence
Conceptions form above the Sphear of Sense.
They by their Operations must conclude
They are with Life, and Thought, and Choice endu'd,
And hence the Intellectual World is known,
While we conceive their Nature by our own.
Then climbs the Mind to the first glorious Cause,
And his bright Image by this Model draws.
Freedom of Choice, pure Intellectual Light,
Power Independent, Goodness Infinite,
To form the great Idea we unite.
All other Images for him design'd
Debase the Glory of th'Eternal Mind;
Degrade his high Perfections, and infuse
Unworthy Thoughts, and Vulgar Minds abuse.
(Bk VIII, pp. 220-1, ll. 481-511)",,21431,"","""Then climbs the Mind to the first glorious Cause, / And his bright Image by this Model draws. / Freedom of Choice, pure Intellectual Light, / Power Independent, Goodness Infinite, / To form the great Idea we unite.""","",2013-07-02 18:58:16 UTC,Book VIII