text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions, to spread such flowers over the regions through which the intellect has already made its progress, as may tempt it to return, and take a second view of things hastily passed over, or negligently regarded.
(p. 14)",2011-05-24 20:55:10 UTC,"""The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions, to spread such flowers over the regions through which the intellect has already made its progress, as may tempt it to return, and take a second view of things hastily passed over, or negligently regarded.""",2011-05-24 20:55:10 UTC,"","",,"","",Searching in UVa E-Text Center,18475,6865
"In his Night Thoughts he has exhibited a very wide display of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking allusions, a wilderness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odour. This is one of the few poems in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage. The wild diffusion of the sentiments and the digressive sallies of imagination would have been compressed and restrained by regard to rhyme. The excellence of this work is not exactness but copiousness; particular lines are not to be regarded; the power is in the whole, and in the whole there is a magnificence like that ascribed to Chinese plantation, the magnificence of vast extent and endless diversity.
(pp. 107-8)",2011-10-20 16:16:53 UTC,"""In his 'Night Thoughts' he has exhibited a very wide display of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking allusions, a wilderness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odour.""",2011-10-20 16:16:53 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,19278,7117
"The Hours of a wise Man are lengthened by his Ideas, as those of a Fool are by his Passions: The Time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; so is that of the other, because he distinguishes every Moment of it with useful or amusing Thought; or in other Words, because the one is always wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it.
How different is the View of past Life, in the Man who is grown old in Knowledge and Wisdom, from that of him who is grown old in Ignorance and Folly? The latter is like the Owner of a barren Country that fills his Eye with the Prospect of naked Hills and Plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and spacious Landskip divided into delightful Gardens, green Meadows, fruitful Fields, and can scarce cast his Eye on a single Spot of his Possessions, that is not covered with some beautiful Plant or Flower.
(I, 401-402)",2014-01-12 16:36:54 UTC,"""The latter [the fool and his passions] is like the Owner of a barren Country that fills his Eye with the Prospect of naked Hills and Plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other [the wise man and his ideas] beholds a beautiful and spacious Landskip divided into delightful Gardens, green Meadows, fruitful Fields, and can scarce cast his Eye on a single Spot of his Possessions, that is not covered with some beautiful Plant or Flower.""",2013-03-22 17:17:05 UTC,"","",,"","","Searching ""mind"" in Project Gutenberg e-text. ",20011,7355
"But Wisdom smiles when humbled mortals weep.
When Sorrow wounds the breast, as ploughs the glebe,
And hearts obdurate feel her softening shower;
Her seed celestial, then, glad Wisdom sows;
Her golden harvest triumphs in the soil.
If so, Narcissa ! welcome my Relapse:
I'll raise a tax on my calamity,
And reap rich compensation from my pain.
I'll range the plenteous intellectual field;
And gather every thought of sovereign power,
To chase the moral maladies of man;
Thoughts which may bear transplanting to the skies,
Though natives of this coarse penurious soil;
Nor wholly wither there, where seraphs sing,
Refined, exalted, not annull'd, in heaven:
Reason, the sun that gives them birth, the same
In either clime, though more illustrious there.
These, choicely cull'd, and elegantly ranged,
Shall form a garland for Narcissa 's tomb;
And, peradventure, of no fading flowers.
(ll. 274-293, p. 124 in CUP edition)",2013-06-10 19:53:16 UTC,"""I'll range the plenteous intellectual field; / And gather every thought of sovereign power, / To chase the moral maladies of man; / Thoughts which may bear transplanting to the skies, / Though natives of this coarse penurious soil; / Nor wholly wither there, where seraphs sing, / Refined, exalted, not annull'd, in heaven: / Reason, the sun that gives them birth, the same / In either clime, though more illustrious there.""",2013-06-10 19:53:16 UTC,Night the Fifth,"",,"","",Reading,20491,7407
"No Man is obliged to learn and know every Thing; this can neither be sought or required, for 'tis utterly impossible: Yet all Persons are under some Obligation to improve their own Understanding, otherwise it will be a barren Desart, or a Forest overgrown grown with Weeds and Brambles. Universal Ignorance or infinite Errors will overspread the Mind, which is utterly neglected and lies without any Cultivation.
(pp. 1-2)",2014-02-05 21:55:13 UTC,"""Yet all Persons are under some Obligation to improve their own Understanding, otherwise it will be a barren Desart, or a Forest overgrown grown with Weeds and Brambles.""",2014-02-05 21:55:13 UTC,Introduction,"",,"","",Searching and Reading in Google Books,23359,4702
"I've a mighty part within
That the world hath never seen,
Rich as Eden's happy ground,
And with choicer plenty crown'd:
Here on all the shining boughs
Knowledge fair and useful grows;
On the same young flow'ry tree
All the seasons you may see;
Notions in the bloom of light,
Just disclosing to the sight;
Here are thoughts of larger growth,
Rip'ning into solid truth;
Fruits refin'd, of noble taste;
Seraphs feed on such repast.
Here in a green and shady grove,
Streams of pleasure mix with love:
There beneath the smiling skies
Hills of contemplation rise;
Now upon some shining top
Angels light, and call me up;
I rejoice to raise my feet,
Both rejoice when there we meet.
(pp. 469-470, ll. 21-42)",2014-06-22 18:20:23 UTC,"""I've a mighty part within / That the world hath never seen, / Rich as Eden's happy ground, / And with choicer plenty crown'd: / Here on all the shining boughs / Knowledge fair and useful grows; / On the same young flow'ry tree / All the seasons you may see; / Notions in the bloom of light, / Just disclosing to the sight; / Here are thoughts of larger growth, / Rip'ning into solid truth; / Fruits refin'd, of noble taste; / Seraphs feed on such repast.""",2014-04-12 22:23:42 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading work in progress by Sarah Tindal Kareem,23775,7864
"It is not so much the being exempt from Faults, as the having overcome them, that is an Advantage to us; it being with the Follies of the Mind as with the Weeds of a Field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their Birth, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there.
(4)",2017-03-09 04:33:16 UTC,"""It is not so much the being exempt from Faults, as the having overcome them, that is an Advantage to us; it being with the Follies of the Mind as with the Weeds of a Field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their Birth, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there.""",2017-03-09 04:33:16 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,25042,8209