work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5732,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""engrav"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-03-08 00:00:00 UTC,"""What reads my child?"" he cried; ""some tender ""tale
""Of virtuous suff'ring?"" Startled at the voice,
She shut her book, and wiping her warm cheek
Put it away disorder'd. ""Let me see,""
Said Adriano kindly; ""let me see
""What tale has pow'r to wring exhausted grief
""To such a flood of woe!"" He seiz'd the book,
And found it Werter's Sorrows. ""Aye, my child,
""A wretched tale, but not to be believ'd.
""O pestilent example, to describe
""As worthy pity and the fair one's tears
""Deeds by no arguments to be excus'd.
""Who kills himself, involves him in the guilt
""Of foulest murder. True, no written law
""Commands our strict forbearance; but be sure
""The laws of nature are the laws of God;
""And he, who said Thou shalt not murder, made
""This universal law that binds our hands
""From mischief to ourselves. Else why so strong
""The love of being and the fear of death?
""Why stands the tortur'd sick on the grave's brink,
""And trembles to step in? Why linger I,
""Assur'd that nothing painful waits me there?
""'Tis God's decree engrav'd upon the heart
""To make us wait with patience, till he comes,
""Undraws the curtain, and dispels the gloom,
""And takes us to his bosom, and rewards
""Our constancy and truth. That mortal then,
""Who shuns the suff'rance of impending ills,
""Is cowardly and rash. For what more rash
""Than wilfully to spoil a noble work
""God made, and said, let live? What more betrays
""Rank cowardice, than tim'rously to shake
""And fly distracted at a foe's approach?
""Can there be aught more painful, than to lose
""An amiable wife? in one short hour
""To fall from affluence and joy and peace,
""To poverty and grief? Can there be felt
""Heavier misfortune, than to lose a son,
""And find myself a beggar at his death;
""Forc'd into solitude without a friend,
""And only one poor little weeping child
""To be the sad companion of my grief?
""Yet am I living still, and kiss the hand
""That smote me so severely. Tell me not
""That life has pains too heavy to support.
""Look towards Calvary, and learn from thence
""The noblest fortitude is still to bear
""Accumulated ills, and never faint.
""We may avoid them, if we can with honour;
""But, God requiring, let weak man submit,
""And drink the bitter draught, and not repine.
""Had Cato been a Christian, he had died
""By inches, rather than have ta'en the sword
""And fall'n unlike his master.""",2012-04-03,15281,"","""'Tis God's decree engrav'd upon the heart / To make us wait with patience, till he comes, / Undraws the curtain, and dispels the gloom, / And takes us to his bosom, and rewards / Our constancy and truth.""",Writing,2012-04-03 20:56:06 UTC,""
5734,"","Searching ""engrav"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Drama)",2005-03-09 00:00:00 UTC,"LOUSIA.
Sir, your conduct has endear'd you to me for ever, and while I live, your generosity and valour shall be engraven on my heart.",,15282,"","""[W]hile I live, your generosity and valour shall be engraven on my heart""","",2009-09-14 19:43:14 UTC,"Act IV, scene iv"
5775,"",Reading,2009-09-14 19:43:33 UTC,"[...] Like the lightning's flash are many recollections; one idea assimilating and explaining another, with astonishing rapidity. I do not now allude to taht quick perception of truth, which is so intuitive that it baffles research, and makes us at a loss to determine whether it is reminiscence or ratiocination, lost sight of in its celerity, that opens the dark cloud. Over those instantaneous associations we have little power; for when the mind is once enlarged by excursive flights, or profound reflection, the raw materials will, in some degree, arrange themselves. The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe from the imagination and warm sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring. Over this subtile electric fluid, how little power do we possess, and over it how little power can reason obtain. These fine intractable spirits appear to be the essence of genius, and beaming its eagle eye, produce in the most eminent degree the happy energy of associating thoughts that surprise, delight, and instruct. These are the glowing minds that concentrate pictures for their fellow creatures; forcing them to view with interest the objects reflected from the impassioned imagination, which they passed over in nature.
(p. 113-114)",,15402,"","""The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe from the imagination and warm sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring.""","",2012-01-23 16:57:32 UTC,Chapter VI
5775,Blank Slate,Reading,2009-09-14 19:43:35 UTC,"Yet, when I exclaim against novels, I mean when contrasted with those works which exercise the understanding and regulate the imagination. For any kind of reading, I think better than leaving a blank still blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers; besides, even the productions that are only addressed to the imagination, raise the reader a little above the gross gratification of appetites, to which the mind has not given a shade of delicacy.
(p. 191; cf. p. 427 in 1792 ed.)",2003-10-23,15416,"","""For any kind of reading, I think better than leaving a blank still blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers.""",Writing,2014-10-05 16:34:02 UTC,""
5787,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""seal"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-04-17 00:00:00 UTC,"For, vainly think not, tho' the classic school
Of eloquence hath charm'd thy tranced hours,
That, there, the just--the appropriate model claims
Thine imitative labours. Unconstrain'd,
From equity's intrinsic source, (to all
Perspicuous), and the heart's decisions stamp'd
By Nature's seal, and man's primæval laws,
The immortal champions of the forum drew
Their more persuasive numbers. Short their code,
And simple; wedded to no toil austere;
Nor asking many a lustrum, to devote
The midnight lamp to musing. To combine
The quick varieties of thought; to snatch
From elocution all the heightening grace
Of diction; and amuse the million's eye
By each external impulse; this their boast,
This was their aim. No deep immuring pile
(The science of innumerous tomes) opprest
The mental strength elastic; nor perplex'd
By facts from mazy records, the free flow
Of speech, that never hesitating ran
Thro' easy vein. And while (the rare result
Of letter'd art) the precious volume gave
Its treasures to the few--perhaps no more
Accessible, and barr'd from vulgar gaze;
They bade retentive memory on their mind
Impress each image, in distinctive lines
That mock'd erasure. Hence the pleader, bold
In vigorous thought, and trusting to those powers
Which knew no ready refuge in the means
Of foreign aid, unlock'd with nature's key
The secret springs that agitate the soul!",,15439,•C-H also lists an Oxford edition: Fletcher. Taken from Poems (1806). DNB gives 1785 as earliest edition (although under a different title). ,"""[T]he heart's decisions"" may be ""stamp'd / By Nature's seal, and man's primæval laws""","",2009-09-14 19:43:39 UTC,""
5963,"","Searching ""iron"" and ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO",2005-06-07 00:00:00 UTC,"When injuries have gor'd a well-wrought soul,
'Tis urg'd we should forgive and then forget!
When Priestley fats in Diocesan chair,
When Genius, Wit and Virtue are ador'd,
When Pitt shall kiss the Muses on their hill,
When Lady Grosv'nor curtsies to the creed,
When Gunning's sportive, who is all for-Lorn,
When Strathmore's Countess martyrs all her cats,
When Banks prefers Philosophers to flies,
When Tippoo makes the decalogue his law,
When Providence gives Q. his second sight,
When Gloster's Duchess names her Grandmama,
When regal finger purifies the blood,
When Sandwich writhes at tales of defloration,
When Cambria's Prince and meanness are allied,
When Israel's dingy produce hallow pigs,
When Lonsdale's lord becomes a man of wax,
When Dysart gives his mutton to the poor,
When Drapers' yards exceed the scale an inch,
When Burke and Freedom eat with the same spoon,
Then from the iron tablet of my mind,
Will I efface my catalogue of wrongs.
(pp. 37-9 in 1791 printing)",,15863,•I've included twice: Writing and Metal,"""Then from the iron tablet of my mind, / Will I efface my catalogue of wrongs.""",Metal,2014-02-26 22:27:24 UTC,""
6855,"",Reading,2011-05-19 20:07:58 UTC,"While I am writing this there are accidentally before me some proposals for a declaration of rights by the Marquis de la Fayette (I ask his pardon for using his former address, and do it only for distinction's sake) to the National Assembly, on the 11th of July, 1789, three days before the taking of the Bastille, and I cannot but remark with astonishment how opposite the sources are from which that gentleman and Mr. Burke draw their principles. Instead of referring to musty records and mouldy parchments to prove that the rights of the living are lost, ""renounced and abdicated for ever,"" by those who are now no more, as Mr. Burke has done, M. de la Fayette applies to the living world, and emphatically says: ""Call to mind the sentiments which nature has engraved on the heart of every citizen, and which take a new force when they are solemnly recognised by all:--For a nation to love liberty, it is sufficient that she knows it; and to be free, it is sufficient that she wills it."" How dry, barren, and obscure is the source from which Mr. Burke labours! and how ineffectual, though gay with flowers, are all his declamation and his arguments compared with these clear, concise, and soul-animating sentiments! Few and short as they are, they lead on to a vast field of generous and manly thinking, and do not finish, like Mr. Burke's periods, with music in the ear, and nothing in the heart.
(p. 207)",,18432,"","""Call to mind the sentiments which nature has engraved on the heart of every citizen, and which take a new force when they are solemnly recognised by all.""",Writing,2011-05-19 20:08:06 UTC,Part One
5736,"",Reading,2013-05-31 22:08:28 UTC,"The public rejoicings at the castle closed with the week; but the gay spirit of the marchioness forbade a return to tranquillity; and she substituted diversions more private, but in splendour scarcely inferior to the preceding ones. She had observed the behaviour of Hippolitus on the night of the concert with chagrin, and his departure with sorrow; yet disdaining to perpetuate misfortune by reflection, she sought to lose the sense of disappointment in the hurry of dissipation. But her efforts to erase him from her remembrance were ineffectual. Unaccustomed to oppose the bent of her inclinations, they now maintained unbounded sway; and she found too late, that in order to have a due command of our passions, it is necessary to subject them to early obedience. Passion, in its undue influence, produces weakness as well as injustice. The pain which now recoiled upon her heart from disappointment, she had not strength of mind to endure, and she sought relief from its pressure in afflicting the innocent. Julia, whose beauty she imagined had captivated the count, and confirmed him in indifference towards herself, she incessantly tormented by the exercise of those various and splenetic little arts, which elude the eye of the common observer, and are only to be known by those who have felt them. Arts, which individually are inconsiderable, but in the aggregate, amount to a cruel and decisive effect.
(I.ii, pp. 57-8; pp. 25-6 in OUP edition)",,20264,"","""But her efforts to erase him from her remembrance were ineffectual.""",Writing,2013-05-31 22:08:28 UTC,"Volume I, Chapter II"
7438,Punning on portray and draw?,Reading,2013-06-13 17:18:37 UTC,"Thou spectre of terrific mien,
Lord of the hopeless heart and hollow eye,
In whose fierce train each form is sees
That drives sick Reason to insanity!
I woo thee with unusual prayer,
""Grim visaged, comfortless Despair:""
Approach; in me a willing victim find,
Who seeks thine iron sway--and calls thee kind!
Ah! hide for ever from my sight
The faithless flatterer Hope--whose pencil, gay,
Portrays some vision of delight,
Then bids the fairy tablet fade away;
While in dire contrast, to mine eyes
Thy phantoms, yet more hideous, rise,
And Memory draws, from Pleasure's wither'd flower,
Corrosives for the heart--of fatal power!
I bid the traitor Love, adieu!
Who to this fond, believing bosom came,
A guest insidious and untrue,
With Pity's soothing voice--in Friendship's name;
The wounds he gave, nor Time shall cure
Nor Reason teach me to endure.
And to that breast mild Patience pleads in vain,
Which feels the curse--of meriting it's pain.
(ll. 1-24, pp. 49-50)",,20630,"","""Ah! hide for ever from my sight / The faithless flatterer Hope--whose pencil, gay, / Portrays some vision of delight, / Then bids the fairy tablet fade away; / While in dire contrast, to mine eyes / Thy phantoms, yet more hideous, rise, / And Memory draws, from Pleasure's wither'd flower, / Corrosives for the heart--of fatal power!""",Writing,2013-06-13 17:18:37 UTC,""
7542,"",Reading; text from Google Books,2013-07-12 14:59:04 UTC,"You, my dear friend, who have felt the tender attachments of love and friendship, and the painful anxieties which absence occasions, even amidst scenes of variety and pleasure; who understand the value at which tidings from those we love is computed in the arithmetic of the heart; who have heard with almost uncontroulable emotion the postman's rap at the door; have trembling seen the well-known hand which excited sensations that almost deprived you of power to break the seal which seemed the talisman of happiness; you can judge of the feelings of Mons. du F when he received, by means of the same friend who had conveyed his letter, an answer from his wife. But the person who brought the letter to his dungeon, dreading the risk of a discovery, insisted, that, after having read it, he should return it to him immediately. Mons. du F-- pressed the letter to his heart, bathed it with his tears, and implored the indulgence of keeping it at least till the next morning. He was allowed to do so, and read it till every word was imprinted on his memory; and after enjoying the sad luxury of holding it that night on his bosom, was forced the next morning to relinquish his treasure.
(Letter XX, p. 163-4; p. 129 in Broadview ed.)",,21701,"","He was allowed to do so, and read it till every word was imprinted on his memory; and after enjoying the sad luxury of holding it that night on his bosom, was forced the next morning to relinquish his treasure.""",Impressions and Writing,2013-07-12 14:59:04 UTC,""