work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5088,Momus Glass,Reading,2009-09-14 19:38:59 UTC,"If the fixture of Momus' glass, in the human breast, according to the proposed emendations of that arch-critick, had taken place,--first, This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,--That the very wisest and the very gravest of us all, in one coin or other, must have paid window-money every day of our lives.
And, secondly, That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;--watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and after some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, &c.--then taken your pen and ink and set down nothing but what you have seen, and could have sworn to:--But this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet.""
(I.xxiii, Norton, p. 52)",2013-04-14,13687,"Reviewed 2013-04-14: discovered missing text in the middle of the quote. What the fuck?
Reviewed 2011-09-23
Reviewed 2004-11-18
•borrowed from later, now deleted entry:
Maggots?!
The OED gives for maggot, n1:
2. a. A whimsical, eccentric, strange, or perverse notion or idea. Now arch. and regional .
a1625 J. F LETCHER Women Pleas'd III .iv, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Eeeeee2 v/1, Are not you mad my friend?.. Have not you Maggots in your braines? c1645 J. H OWELL Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1688) II. 328 There's a strange Magot hath got into their Brain. 1680 DRYDEN Kind Keeper V.i. 57 What new Maggot's this? you dare not sure be jealous! 1685 S. W ESLEY (title )Maggots: Or, Poems on several subjects. a1692 T. S HADWELL Volunteers (1693) V.i. 51 M. G. Bl. Ha Fellow, what dost thou mean by a Maggot? Hop. Sir, a little Concern of mine in my way, alittle whim, or so sir. 1717 M. P RIOR Alma I.400 Your Horace owns, he various writ, As wild or sober maggots bit. 1784 R. B URNS Commonplace Bk. Aug., One who spends the hours..with Ossian, Shakspeare,..&c.; or, as the maggot takes him, a gun, a fiddle, or a song to make or mend. 1802 J. W OLCOT Pitt & Statue in Wks. (1812) IV. 501 Soon as a maggot crept into my head I caught a stump of pen and put it down. 1816 SCOTT Antiquary III. ix. 90 For a' the nonsense maggots that ye whiles take into your head, ye are the maist wise and discreet o' a' our country gentles. 1898 D. C. M URRAY Tales 255 She's got some maggot in her head about being loved for her own sake. 1928 D. L. S AYERS Lord Peter views Body 208 One o' these 'ere sersiety toffs wiv a maggot fer old books. 1957 G. H EYER Sylvester xvi. 180 'My love,' I said..'You've got a maggot in your Idea-pot.' ","""That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;--watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and after some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, &c.""",Animals and Optics,2013-04-14 20:54:57 UTC,"Vol. 1, Chap. 23"
5088,Momus Glass,HDIS (Prose),2009-09-14 19:39:00 UTC,"I Have a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy. --Accordingly I set off thus.
If the fixure of Momus's glass, in the human breast, according to the proposed emendation of that arch-critick, had taken place,--first, This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,-- That the very wisest and the very gravest of us all, in one coin or other, must have paid window-money every day of our lives.
And, secondly, That had the said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,-- view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;-- traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;-- watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and ofter some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, & c. --then taken your pen and ink and set down nothing but what you had seen, and could have sworn to: --But this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet,--in the planet Mercury (belike) it may be so, if not better still for him;--for there the intense heat of the country, which is proved by computators, from its vicinity to the sun, to be more than equal to that of red hot iron,--must, I think, long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants, (as the efficient cause) to suit them for the climate (which is the final cause); so that, betwixt them both, all the tenements of their souls, from top to bottom, may be nothing else, for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary, but one fine transparent body of clear glass (bating the umbilical knot);-- so, that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled, whereby the rays of light, in passing through them, become so monstrously refracted,--or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye, that a man cannot be seen thro';--his soul might as well, unless, for more ceremony,--or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,--might, upon all other accounts, I say, as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house.
But this, as I said above, is not the case of the inhabitants of this earth;-- our minds shine not through the body, but are wrapt up here in a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh and blood; so that if we would come to the specifick characters of them, we must go some other way to work.
Many, in good truth, are the ways which human wit has been forced to take to do this thing with exactness.
Some, for instance, draw all their characters with wind instruments. -- Virgil takes notice of that way in the affair of Dido and Æneas ;--but it is as fallacious as the breath of fame;--and, moreover, bespeaks a narrow genius. I am not ignorant that the Italians pretend to a mathematical exactness in their designations of one particular sort of character among them, from the forte or piano of a certain wind instrument they use,--which they say is infallible. --I dare not mention the name of the instrument in this place;--'tis sufficient we have it amongst us,--but never think of making a drawing by it;--this is ænigmatical, and intended to be so, at least, ad populum : -- And therefore I beg, Madam, when you come here, that you read on as fast as you can, and never stop to make any inquiry about it.
There are others again, who will draw a man's character from no other helps in the world, but merely from his evacuations; --but this often gives a very incorrect out-line,--unless, indeed, you take a sketch of his repletions too; and by correcting one drawing from the other, compound one good figure out of them both.
I should have no objection to this method, but that I think it must smell too strong of the lamp,--and be render'd still more operose, by forcing you to have an eye to the rest of his Non-Naturals . -- Why the most natural actions of a man's life should be call'd his Non-Naturals,-- is another question.
There are others, fourthly, who disdain every one of these expedients;--not from any fertility of his own, but from the various ways of doing it, which they have borrowed from the honourable devices which the Pentagraphic Brethren of the brush have shewn in taking copies. --These, you must know, are your great historians.
One of these you will see drawing a full-length character against the light ;-- that's illiberal,--dishonest,--and hard upon the character of the man who sits.
Others, to mend the matter, will make a drawing of you in the Camera ;--that is most unfair of all,--because, there you are sure to be represented in some of your most ridiculous attitudes.
To avoid all and every one of these errors, in giving you my uncle Toby's character, I am determin'd to draw it by no mechanical help whatever;--nor shall my pencil be guided by any one wind instrument which ever was blown upon, either on this, or on the other side of the Alps ;--nor will I consider either his repletions or his discharges,-- or touch upon his Non-Naturals;--but, in a word, I will draw my uncle Toby's character from his Hobby-Horse.
(Vol I, Chapter xxiii, pp. 165-172)",2011-09-23,13695,Mercurians are made of glass,"""[I]n the planet Mercury (belike) it may be so, if not better still for [the biographer];--for there the intense heat of the country, which is proved by computators, from its vicinity to the sun, to be more than equal to that of red hot iron,--must, I think, long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants, (as the efficient cause) to suit them for the climate (which is the final cause); so that, betwixt them both, all the tenements of their souls, from top to bottom, may be nothing else, for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary, but one fine transparent body of clear glass (bating the umbilical knot);-- so, that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled, whereby the rays of light, in passing through them, become so monstrously refracted,--or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye, that a man cannot be seen thro';--his soul might as well, unless, for more ceremony,--or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,--might, upon all other accounts, I say, as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house.""",Optics and Rooms,2011-09-23 18:42:25 UTC,"Vol 1, Chap. 23."
5088,Momus Glass,HDIS (Prose),2009-09-14 19:39:01 UTC,"I Have a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy. --Accordingly I set off thus.
If the fixure of Momus's glass, in the human breast, according to the proposed emendation of that arch-critick, had taken place,--first, This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,-- That the very wisest and the very gravest of us all, in one coin or other, must have paid window-money every day of our lives.
And, secondly, That had the said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,-- view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;-- traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;-- watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and ofter some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, & c. --then taken your pen and ink and set down nothing but what you had seen, and could have sworn to: --But this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet,--in the planet Mercury (belike) it may be so, if not better still for him;--for there the intense heat of the country, which is proved by computators, from its vicinity to the sun, to be more than equal to that of red hot iron,--must, I think, long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants, (as the efficient cause) to suit them for the climate (which is the final cause); so that, betwixt them both, all the tenements of their souls, from top to bottom, may be nothing else, for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary, but one fine transparent body of clear glass (bating the umbilical knot);-- so, that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled, whereby the rays of light, in passing through them, become so monstrously refracted,--or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye, that a man cannot be seen thro';--his soul might as well, unless, for more ceremony,--or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,--might, upon all other accounts, I say, as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house.
But this, as I said above, is not the case of the inhabitants of this earth;-- our minds shine not through the body, but are wrapt up here in a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh and blood; so that if we would come to the specifick characters of them, we must go some other way to work.
Many, in good truth, are the ways which human wit has been forced to take to do this thing with exactness.
Some, for instance, draw all their characters with wind instruments. -- Virgil takes notice of that way in the affair of Dido and Æneas ;--but it is as fallacious as the breath of fame;--and, moreover, bespeaks a narrow genius. I am not ignorant that the Italians pretend to a mathematical exactness in their designations of one particular sort of character among them, from the forte or piano of a certain wind instrument they use,--which they say is infallible. --I dare not mention the name of the instrument in this place;--'tis sufficient we have it amongst us,--but never think of making a drawing by it;--this is ænigmatical, and intended to be so, at least, ad populum : -- And therefore I beg, Madam, when you come here, that you read on as fast as you can, and never stop to make any inquiry about it.
There are others again, who will draw a man's character from no other helps in the world, but merely from his evacuations; --but this often gives a very incorrect out-line,--unless, indeed, you take a sketch of his repletions too; and by correcting one drawing from the other, compound one good figure out of them both.
I should have no objection to this method, but that I think it must smell too strong of the lamp,--and be render'd still more operose, by forcing you to have an eye to the rest of his Non-Naturals . -- Why the most natural actions of a man's life should be call'd his Non-Naturals,-- is another question.
There are others, fourthly, who disdain every one of these expedients;--not from any fertility of his own, but from the various ways of doing it, which they have borrowed from the honourable devices which the Pentagraphic Brethren of the brush have shewn in taking copies. --These, you must know, are your great historians.
One of these you will see drawing a full-length character against the light ;-- that's illiberal,--dishonest,--and hard upon the character of the man who sits.
Others, to mend the matter, will make a drawing of you in the Camera ;--that is most unfair of all,--because, there you are sure to be represented in some of your most ridiculous attitudes.
To avoid all and every one of these errors, in giving you my uncle Toby's character, I am determin'd to draw it by no mechanical help whatever;--nor shall my pencil be guided by any one wind instrument which ever was blown upon, either on this, or on the other side of the Alps ;--nor will I consider either his repletions or his discharges,-- or touch upon his Non-Naturals;--but, in a word, I will draw my uncle Toby's character from his Hobby-Horse.
(Vol I, Chapter xxiii, pp. 165-172)",2011-09-23,13697,Reviewed 2003-10-23,"""But this, as I said above, is not the case of the inhabitants of this earth;--our minds shine not through the body, but are wrapt up here in a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh and blood; so that if we would come to the specifick characters of them, we must go some other way to work.""",Optics,2011-09-23 18:45:02 UTC,"Vol 1, Chap. 23."
5088,Wit and Judgment,Searching in HDIS (Prose); confirmed in ECCO.,2004-11-17 00:00:00 UTC,"Now, Agalastes (speaking dispraisingly) sayeth, That there may be some wit in it, for aught he knows,--but no judgment at all. And Triptolemus and Phutatorius agreeing thereto, ask, How is it possible there should? for that wit and judgment in this world never go together; inasmuch as they are two operations differing from each other as wide as east is from west.--So, says Locke,--so are farting and hickuping, say I. But in answer to this, Didius the great church lawyer, in his code de fartandi et illustrandi fallaciis, doth maintain and make fully appear, That an illustration is no argument,--nor do I maintain the wiping of a looking-glass clean, to be a syllogism;--but you all, may it please your worships, see the better for it,--so that the main good these things do, is only to clarify the understanding, previous to the application of the argument itself, in order to free it from any little motes, or specks of opacular matter, which if left swiming therein, might hinder a conception and spoil all.
(pp. 87-8; cf. 3:327 in ECCO; Norton, 140-1)",2011-09-23,13703,"","""[A]n illustration is no argument,--nor do I maintain the wiping of a looking-glass clean, to be a syllogism;--but you all, may it please your worships, see the better for it,--so that the main good these things do, is only to clarify the understanding, previous to the application of the argument itself, in order to free it from any little motes, or specks of opacular matter, which if left swiming therein, might hinder a conception and spoil all.""",Optics,2014-10-13 16:24:14 UTC,"Vol III, Chap. 20: The Author's Preface"
5088,Train of Ideas,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2005-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"Now, whether we observe it or no, continued my father, in every sound man's head, there is a regular succession of ideas of one sort or other, which follow each other in train just like--A train of artillery? said my uncle Toby.--A train of a fiddle stick!--quoth my father,-- which follow and succeed one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle.--I declare, quoth my uncle Toby, mine are like a smoak-jack. --Then, brother Toby, I have nothing more to say to you upon the subject, said my father.
(pp. 80-1; Norton, 139)",2008-10-07,13746,"","Ideas ""follow and succeed one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle.""",Optics,2011-09-23 19:49:07 UTC,"Vol. 3, Chapter 18"
7696,"","Searching ""camera obscura"" in ECCO-TCP",2013-09-28 20:09:51 UTC,"Squire Groome is no national characteristic of England, but a general representative of any person of the three kingdoms, who likes horse-racing, drinking, &c. preferably to any other happiness; but why he should be the type of the English nation, I cannot see, and therefore leave it to the very jumbling author to explain in the best manner he can; for objects receive strange aspects, as they pass through the camera obscura of his intellect.
(p. 6)",,22886,INTEREST. ,"""Squire Groome is no national characteristic of England, but a general representative of any person of the three kingdoms, who likes horse-racing, drinking, &c. preferably to any other happiness; but why he should be the type of the English nation, I cannot see, and therefore leave it to the very jumbling author to explain in the best manner he can; for objects receive strange aspects, as they pass through the camera obscura of his intellect.""","",2013-09-28 20:09:51 UTC,""
7982,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2014-07-24 21:37:35 UTC,"But I submit to the stroke of heaven, I hold the volume of Confucius in my hand, and as I read grow humble and patient, and wise. We should feel sorrow, says he, but not sink under its oppression; the heart of a wise man should resemble a mirrour, which reflects every object without being sullied by any. The wheel of fortune turns incessantly round, and who can say within himself I shall to day be uppermost. We should hold the immutable mean that lies between insensibility and anguish; our attempts should be not to extinguish nature, but to repress it; not to stand unmoved at distress, but endeavour to turn every disaster to our own advantage. Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
(I, pp. 22-23)
",,24256,"[The Editor thinks proper to acquaint the reader, that the greatest part of the following letter seems to him to be little more than a rhapsody of sentences borrowed from Confucius, the Chinese philosopher.]","""We should feel sorrow, says he, but not sink under its oppression; the heart of a wise man should resemble a mirrour, which reflects every object without being sullied by any.""",Mirror,2014-07-24 21:37:35 UTC,"LETTER VII. From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, first president of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China."
7982,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2014-07-25 02:50:36 UTC,"But of all the wonders of the east, the most useful, and I should fancy, the most pleasing, would be the looking-glass of Lao, which reflects the mind as well as the body. It is said that the emperor Chusi used to make his concubines dress their heads and their hearts in one of these glasses every morning; while the lady was at her toilet, he would frequently look, over her shoulder; and it is recorded that among the three hundred which composed his seraglio, not one was found whose mind was not even more beautiful than her person.
I make no doubt but a glass in this country would have the very same effect. The English ladies, concubines and all, would undoubtedly cut very pretty figures in so faithful a monitor. There, should we happen to peep over a lady's shoulder while dressing, we might be able to see neither gaming nor ill-nature; neither pride, debauchery, nor a love of gadding. We should find her, if any sensible defect appeared in the mind, more careful in rectifying it, than plaistering up the irreparable decays of the person; nay, I am even apt to fancy, that ladies would find more real pleasure in this utensil in private, than in any other bauble imported from China, though never so expensive, or amusing.
(I, pp. 195-196)",,24275,"","""But of all the wonders of the east, the most useful, and I should fancy, the most pleasing, would be the looking-glass of Lao, which reflects the mind as well as the body.""",Mirror,2014-07-25 02:50:36 UTC,"LETTER XLIV. From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, first president of the Ceremonial Academy, at Pekin, in China"
7982,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2014-07-25 02:53:00 UTC,"As when a first-rate beauty, after having with difficulty escaped the small pox, revisits her favourite mirror, that mirror which had repeated the flattery of every lover, and even added force to the compliment; expecting to see what had so often given her pleasure, she no longer beholds the cherried lip, the polished forehead, and speaking blush, but an hateful phyz, quilted into a thousand seams by the hand of deformity; grief, resentment, and rage fill her bosom by turns; she blames the fates and the stars, but most of all the unhappy glass feels her resentment. So it was with the lady in question; she had never seen her own mind before, and was now shocked at its deformity. One single look was sufficient to satisfy her curiosity; I held up the glass to her face, and she shut her eyes; no entreaties could prevail upon her to gaze once more! she was even going to snatch from my hands, and break it in a thousand pieces. I found it was time therefore to dismiss her as incorrigible, and shew away to the next that offered.
(I, p. 198)",,24277,"","""So it was with the lady in question; she had never seen her own mind before, and was now shocked at its deformity.""",Mirror,2014-07-25 02:53:00 UTC,LETTER XLV. To the same
7982,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2014-07-25 02:55:06 UTC,"The next was a lady who usually teized all her acquaintance in desiring to be told of her faults, and then never mended any. Upon approaching the glass, I could readily perceive vanity, affectation, and some other ill-looking blots on her mind; wherefore by my advice she immediately set about mending. But I could easily find she was not earnest in the work; for as she repaired them on one side, they generally broke out on another. Thus, after three or four attempts, she began to make the ordinary use of the glass in settling her hair.
(I, p. 199)",,24279,"","""Upon approaching the glass, I could readily perceive vanity, affectation, and some other ill-looking blots on her mind; wherefore by my advice she immediately set about mending.""",Mirror,2014-07-25 02:55:06 UTC,LETTER XLV. To the same