work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3635,"","Reading. Found again in Marshall Brown's ""Romanticism and Enlightenment"" in The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism, ed. Stuart Curran (Cambridge UP, 1993), 32.
",2004-01-26 00:00:00 UTC,"This I foretell from your auspicious care,
Who great in search of God and nature grow;
Who best your wise Creator's praise declare,
Since best to praise His works is best to know.
O truly royal! who behold the law,
And rule of beings in your Maker's mind;
And thence, like limbecs , rich ideas draw,
To fit the levelled use of humankind.
(p. 53, ll. 657-664)
",2011-04-19,9434,"Wikipedia: ""Technically, the alembic is the lid with a tube attachment (the capital or still-head), which is placed on top of a flask, the cucurbit, containing the material to be distilled, but the word is often used to refer to the entire distillation apparatus."" ","""O truly royal! who behold the law, / And rule of beings in your Maker's mind; / And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw, / To fit the levelled use of humankind.""","",2011-12-17 19:49:06 UTC,Apostrophe to the Royal Society
3829,"","Searching ""rule"" and ""reason"" in HDIS",2004-06-10 00:00:00 UTC,"One portion of informing fire was given
To brutes, the inferior family of heaven.
The smith divine, as with a careless beat,
Struck out the mute creation at a heat;
But, when arrived at last to human race,
The Godhead took a deep considering space;
And, to distinguish man from all the rest,
Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast;
And mercy mixt with reason did impart,
One to his head, the other to his heart;
Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive;
The first is law, the last prerogative.
And like his mind his outward form appeared,
When, issuing naked to the wondering herd,
He charmed their eyes; and, for they loved, they feared.
Not armed with horns of arbitrary might,
Or claws to seize their furry spoils in fight,
Or with increase of feet to o'ertake them in their flight;
Of easy shape, and pliant every way,
Confessing still the softness of his clay,
And kind as kings upon their coronation day;
With open hands, and with extended space
Of arms, to satisfy a large embrace.
Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man
His kingdom o'er his kindred world began;
Till knowledge misapplied, misunderstood,
And pride of empire, soured his balmy blood.
Then, first rebelling, his own stamp he coins;
The murderer Cain was latent in his loins;
And blood began its first and loudest cry,
For differing worship of the Deity.
Thus persecution rose, and farther space
Produced the mighty hunter of his race.
Not so the blessed Pan his flock increased,
Content to fold them from the famished beast:
Mild were his laws; the sheep and harmless hind
Were never of the persecuting kind.
Such pity now the pious pastor shows,
Such mercy from the British Lion flows,
That both provide protection from their foes.
",2011-04-26,9861,"•AMBIGUOUS. What rules what here? (Does reason rule the self or does it rule others?)
• On a second reading I'm not sure this is ambiguous.","""But, when arrived at last to human race, / The Godhead took a deep considering space; / And, to distinguish man from all the rest, / Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast; / And mercy mixt with reason did impart, / One to his head, the other to his heart; / Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive; / The first is law, the last prerogative.""","",2011-04-26 17:04:29 UTC,""
7132,"",Reading,2011-12-17 20:24:12 UTC,"Dim, as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars
To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers,
Is reason to the soul; and as on high,
Those rolling fires discover but the sky
Not light us here; so reason's glimmering ray
Was lent not to assure our doubtful way,
But guide us upward to a better day.
And as those nightly tapers disappear
When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere
So pale grows reason at religion's sight:
So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light.
Some few, whose lamp shone brighter, have been led
From cause to cause, to Nature's secret head;
And found that one first principle must be:
But what, or who, that Universal He;
Whether some soul incompassing this ball
Unmade, unmov'd; yet making, moving all;
Or various atoms' interfering dance
Leapt into form (the noble work of chance;)
Or this great all was from eternity;
Not even the Stagirite himself could see;
And Epicurus guess'd as well as he:
As blindly grop'd they for a future state;
As rashly judg'd of Providence and Fate:
But least of all could their endeavours find
What most concern'd the good of human kind.
For happiness was never to be found;
But vanish'd from 'em, like enchanted ground.
One thought content the good to be enjoy'd:
This, every little accident destroy'd:
The wiser madmen did for virtue toil:
A thorny, or at best a barren soil:
In pleasure some their glutton souls would steep;
But found their line too short, the well too deep;
And leaky vessels which no bliss could keep.
Thus anxious thoughts in endless circles roll,
Without a centre where to fix the soul:
In this wild maze their vain endeavours end:
How can the less the greater comprehend?
Or finite reason reach infinity?
For what could fathom God were more than He.
(ll. 1-41)",,19352,"","""In pleasure some their glutton souls would steep; / But found their line too short, the well too deep; / And leaky vessels which no bliss could keep.","",2011-12-17 20:25:03 UTC,""
7229,"","Searching ""animal"" and ""spirits"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2012-04-27 16:38:47 UTC,"We view'd the Kitchin call'd Ventriculus,
Then pass'd we through the space call'd Pylorus;
And to the Dining-Room we came at last,
VVhere the Lactæans take their sweet repast.
From thence we through a Drawing-room did pass,
And came where Madam Jecur busie was;
Sanguificating the whole Mass of Chyle,
And severing the Cruoral parts from bile:
And when she's made it tolerably good,
She pours it forth to mix with other Blood.
This and much more we saw, from thence we went
Into the next Court, by a small ascent:
Bless me, said I, what Rarities are here!
A Fountain like a Furnace did appear,
Still boyling o'er, and running out so fast,
That one shou'd think its Efflux cou'd not last;
Yet it sustain'd no loss as I cou'd see,
VVhich made me think it a strange Prodigie.
Come on, says Harvey, don't stand gazing here,
But follow me, and I thy doubts will clear.
Then we began our Journey with the Blood,
Trac'd the Meanders of its Purple flood.
Thus we through many Labyrinths did pass,
In such, I'm sure, Old Dædalus ne'er was;
Sometimes i'th' Out-works, sometimes i'th' first Court;
Sometimes i'th' third these winding streams wou'd sport
Themselves; but here methought I needs must stay,
And listen next to what the Artists say:
Here's Cavities, says one; and here, says he,
Is th' Seat of Fancy, Judgment, Memory:
Here, says another, is the fertile Womb,
From whence the Spirits Animal do come,
Which are mysteriously ingender'd here,
Of Spirits from Arterious Blood and Air:
Here, said a third, Life made her first approach,
Moving the Wheels of her Triumphant Coach:
Hold there, said Harvey, that must be deny'd,
'Twas in the deaf Ear on the dexter side.
Then there arose a trivial small dispute,
Which he by Fact and Reason did confute:
Which being ended, we began again
Our former Journey, and forsook the Brain.
And after some small Traverses about,
We came to th' place where we at first set out:
Then I perceiv'd how all this Magick stood
By th' Circles of the circulating Blood,
As Fountains have their Waters from the Sea,
To which again they do themselves conveigh.
But here we find great Lower by his Art,
Surveying the whole Structure of the Heart:
Welcome, said he, sweet Cousin, are you here,
Sister to him whose Worth we all revere?
But ah, alas, so cruel was his Fate,
As makes us since almost our Practice hate;
Since we cou'd find out nought in all our Art,
That cou'd prolong the motion of his Heart.
",,19723,"","""Here's Cavities, says one; and here, says he, / Is th' Seat of Fancy, Judgment, Memory: / Here, says another, is the fertile Womb, / From whence the Spirits Animal do come, / Which are mysteriously ingender'd here, / Of Spirits from Arterious Blood and Air: / Here, said a third, Life made her first approach, / Moving the Wheels of her Triumphant Coach.""","",2012-04-27 16:39:00 UTC,""
7855,"","Reading Perry Miller's The New England Mind (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1954), 58.",2014-03-14 17:26:47 UTC,"Secondly, when you have made the heart thus affected with sinne, then take heed that the heart doth not flie off and shake off the yoke. Imagine meditation brings all those sins, and miseries, and vilenesse, all are brought home to the heart, and the soule is made sensible by this meanes: Hold the heart there then, labour to keepe the heart in the same temper, that it is brought into, by the consideration of sinne, for this is our nature, when the strooke is troublesome that lieth upon us, and the sinnes are hainous that lie upon us, and are committed by us, these sinnes, these sorrowes, these judgements, when the heart feeles this, it is weary, and would secretly have the wound healed quickly, and the sorrow removed, and the trouble calmed: Take heede of this, and labour to maintaine that heat of heart, which you finde in your selves by vertue of meditation, this is the pitch of the point: as there must bee subjection unto meditation, the heart must be so affected with sinne, as it conceived it to be, so there must be attention; that is, the soule must hold it selfe to that frame and disposition so wrought as it should be. Looke as it is with a Gold smith that melteth the metall that he is to make a vessell of, if after the melting thereof, there follow a cooling, it had beene as good it had never beene melted, it is as hard, haply harder, as unfit, haply unfitter, then it was before to make vessell of; but after he hath melted it, he must keep it in that frame till he come to the moulding and fashoning of it: So meditation is like fire, the heart is like a vessell, the heart is made for God, and it may be made a vessell of grace here, and of glory hereafter: Now meditation, it is that melts the soule, the drosse must be taken away from the soule, and sinne must bee loosened from the heart: Now meditation doth this, it melts the soule, and affects the soule with the weight of sinne: now when you have your heart in some measure melted, keepe it there, doe not let it grow loose againe, and carelesse againe; for then you had as good never have beene melted: And that is the reason why many a poore sinner that hath sometime beene in a good way, and the Lord hath come kindly and wrought powerfully on the heart, and yet at last it hath grown cold & dumpish, & as hard as ever he was againe, and the worke is to beginne again. And take notice of it; looke as it is with the cure of the body, if a man have an old wound, and a deepe one; two things are observable; it is not enough to launce the wound, and draw out the corruptions, but it must be tented also, for if the wound be deepe, it must not be healed presently, but it must be kept open with a tent, that it may be healed soundly, and thoroughly: so it is here; meditation when it is set on, doth launce the soule, it launceth the heart of a man, and it will goe downe to the bottome of the belly: When a man seeth his sinne, and weigheth his sinne it will goe downe to the bottom sometime, and when your heart is thus affected, do not heale it too soone, but hold the soule in that blessed frame & disposition: For as meditation doth launce the soule, so attention doth tent the soule; keepe the soule therfore so troublesome and sorrowfull that so you may be healed soundly, thorowly, and comfortably.
(pp. 112-4)",,23703,"","""Looke as it is with a Gold smith that melteth the metall that he is to make a vessell of, if after the melting thereof, there follow a cooling, it had beene as good it had never beene melted, it is as hard, haply harder, as unfit, haply unfitter, then it was before to make vessell of; but after he hath melted it, he must keep it in that frame till he come to the moulding and fashoning of it: So meditation is like fire, the heart is like a vessell, the heart is made for God, and it may be made a vessell of grace here, and of glory hereafter: Now meditation, it is that melts the soule, the drosse must be taken away from the soule, and sinne must bee loosened from the heart: Now meditation doth this, it melts the soule, and affects the soule with the weight of sinne: now when you have your heart in some measure melted, keepe it there, doe not let it grow loose againe, and carelesse againe; for then you had as good never have beene melted: And that is the reason why many a poore sinner that hath sometime beene in a good way, and the Lord hath come kindly and wrought powerfully on the heart, and yet at last it hath grown cold & dumpish, & as hard as ever he was againe, and the worke is to beginne againe.""",Metal,2014-03-14 17:27:28 UTC,""
3866,"","Searching ""stock"" in EEBO-TCP",2014-07-28 15:14:13 UTC,"§. 5. The Understanding seems to me, not to have the least glimmering of any Ideas, which it doth not receive from one of these two: Eternal Objects furnish the Mind with the Ideas of sensible qualities, which are all those different perceptions they produced in us: And the Mind furnishes the Understanding with Ideas of its own Operations. These, when we have taken a full survey of them, and their several modes, and the Compositions made out of them, we shall find to contain all our whole stock of Ideas; and that we have nothing in our Minds, which did not come in, one of these two ways. Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a mass of Knowledge soever he imagines to be lodged there, he will, upon taking a strict view, see that he has not any Idea in his Mind, but what one of those two have imprinted; though, perhaps, with infinite variety compounded and enlarged, by the Understanding, as we shall see hereafter.
(II.i.5, p. 38)",,24313,"","""These, when we have taken a full survey of them, and their several modes, and the Compositions made out of them, we shall find to contain all our whole stock of Ideas; and that we have nothing in our Minds, which did not come in, one of these two ways.""","",2014-07-28 15:14:13 UTC,""
3866,"",Searching in EEBO-TCP,2014-07-28 15:15:41 UTC,"§. 5. The Understanding seems to me, not to have the least glimmering of any Ideas, which it doth not receive from one of these two: Eternal Objects furnish the Mind with the Ideas of sensible qualities, which are all those different perceptions they produced in us: And the Mind furnishes the Vnderstanding with Ideas of its own Operations. These, when we have taken a full survey of them, and their several modes, and the Compositions made out of them, we shall find to contain all our whole stock of Ideas; and that we have nothing in our Minds, which did not come in, one of these two ways. Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a mass of Knowledge soever he imagines to be lodged there, he will, upon taking a strict view, see that he has not any Idea in his Mind, but what one of those two have imprinted; though, perhaps, with infinite variety compounded and enlarged, by the Understanding, as we shall see hereafter.
(II.i.5, p. 38)",,24314,"","""Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a mass of Knowledge soever he imagines to be lodged there, he will, upon taking a strict view, see that he has not any Idea in his Mind, but what one of those two have imprinted; though, perhaps, with infinite variety compounded and enlarged, by the Understanding, as we shall see hereafter.""",Impressions,2014-07-28 15:15:54 UTC,""
3866,"",Searching in EEBO-TCP,2014-07-28 15:16:42 UTC,"§. 20. I see no Reason therefore to believe, that the Soul thinks before the Senses have furnished it with Ideas to think on; and as those are increased, and retained; so it comes, by Exercise, to improve its Faculty of thinking in the several parts of it, as well as afterwards, by compounding those Ideas, and reflecting on its own Operations, it increases its Stock as well as Facility, in remembring, imagining, reasoning, and other modes of thinking.
(II.i.20, pp. 44)",,24315,"","""I see no Reason therefore to believe, that the Soul thinks before the Senses have furnished it with Ideas to think on; and as those are increased, and retained; so it comes, by Exercise, to improve its Faculty of thinking in the several parts of it, as well as afterwards, by compounding those Ideas, and reflecting on its own Operations, it increases its Stock as well as Facility, in remembring, imagining, reasoning, and other modes of thinking.""","",2014-07-28 15:16:57 UTC,""
8131,"","Reading Sean Silver's The Mind is a Collection: Case Studies in Eighteenth-Century Thought (Philadelphia: Penn Press, 2015), 275n.",2016-03-11 16:37:40 UTC,"The Jesuits certainly are well worthy our imitation in this particular: Nor is there any Art by which they create themselves a greater interest in the Countries where the live, than that by which they undertake the Education of Youth. They who are deputed for this Employment, are not of the meanest quality; they are usually Gentlemen, Men of mature years, and such who have been well vers'd, not only in Ancient Authors, but in the Practice and Conversation of men, and in the methods of business: Their way is, by familiarity and softness to insinuate into the Affections of the Scholar, and to draw him on to diligence rather by hopes, then to whip him forwards by Punishments and Fear: And yet where Negligence makes Correction a duty, they do it rather by inflicting some light disgrace, than by Corporal chastisement, a thing opprobrious to Nature, and which rather dulls than quickens the capacities of Youth. One thing they practice frequently which is really of wonderful use, and that is, their accustoming their Schollars to Act their Parts in Plays. This inures them to a Manlike speech, and to a steedy Spirit and Address. I like Tragedy better than Comedy, where the Argument commonly is light, and is such as requires much of the Buffoon, whereas the former being great and Masculine, will be sure to leave a Tincture of something Noble upon the Mind of him who personates the Hero. Learning ought to be infus'd into the Scholar like spirits into a Bottle, by little and little, for whosoever attempts to pour in all at once, may in all likelihood spill a great part, and in a great measure fill the Vessel with Wind and Air. The Vessels 'tis true which have the streightest Necks will not so readily receive the Liquour, but then they will preserve what they once receive with much more certainty and lastingness of spirit. 'Tis so many times in the capacities of Youth: they who can receive any impression like the Virgin-wax, will as easily suffer a defacement unless it be hardned and matur'd by Time: whereas others who are hard to be wrought upon like Steel, retain the Images which are Engraven on them with much more beauty and perpetuity.
(pp. 23-5)",,24864,"","""Learning ought to be infus'd into the Scholar like spirits into a Bottle, by little and little, for whosoever attempts to pour in all at once, may in all likelihood spill a great part, and in a great measure fill the Vessel with Wind and Air.""","",2016-03-11 16:38:14 UTC,Of Erudition. CHAP. III.
8134,"",Reading,2016-04-06 19:07:28 UTC,"In both these the middle wayes are to be taken, nothing is to be omitted, and yet every thing to pass a mature deliberation: No Intelligence from Men of all Professions, and quarters of the World, to be slighted, and yet all to be so severely examin'd, that there remain no room for doubt or instability; much rigour in admitting, much strictness in comparing and above all, much slowness in debating, and shyness in determining, is to be practised. The Understanding is to order all the inferiour services of the lower Faculties; but yet it is to do this only as a lawful Master, and not as a Tyrant. It must not incroach upon their Offices, nor take upon it self the employments which belong to either of them. It must watch the irregularities of the Senses, but it must not go before them, or prevent their information. It must examine, range, and dispose of the bank which is laid up in the Memory; but it must be sure to make distinction between the sober and well collected heap, and the extravagant Idea's, and mistaken Images, which there it may sometimes light upon. So many are the links, upon which the true Philosophy depends, of which, if anyone be loose, or weak, the whole chain is in danger of being dissolv'd; it is to begin with the Hands and Eyes, and to proceed on through the Memory, to be continued by the Reason; nor is it to stop there, but to come about to the Hands and Eyes again, and so, by a continual passage round from one Faculty to another, it is to be maintained in life and strength, as much as the body of man is by the circulation of the blood through the several parts of the body, the Arms, the Fat, the Lungs, the Heart, and the Head.",,24888,"","The understanding ""must examine, range, and dispose of the bank which is laid up in the Memory; but it must be sure to make distinction between the sober and well collected heap, and the extravagant Idea's, and mistaken Images, which there it may sometimes light upon.""","",2016-04-06 19:07:35 UTC,The Preface