work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5586,"",Reading,2005-07-25 00:00:00 UTC,"To account for this, and other phenomena of Memory, by intermediate causes, many authors, both antient and modern, were fain to suppose, that every thing perceived by us, whether a thought of the mind, or an external object, every thing, in a word, that we remember, makes upon the brain a certain impression, which, remaining for some time after, is taken notice of by the mind, and recognized as the mark of that particular sensation or idea; and that this sensation or idea, thus obtruded upon us anew, gives rise to remembrance. They supposed further, that attention to the thing durable; while that, to which we slightly attend, makes but a slight impression that soon wears out. When the brain itself is disordered, by disease, by drunkenness, or by other accidents, these philosophers are of opinion, that the impressions are disfigured, or instantly erased, or not at all received; in which case, there is either no remembrance, or a confused one: and they think, that the brains of old men, grown callous by length of time, are, like hard wax, equally tenacious of old impressions, and unsusceptible of new. Many plausible things may indeed be said, for solving the difficulties above mentioned, if we will only admit this theory. But it must, notwithstanding, be rejected; and that for several good reasons.
(II.i, p. 10)",2012-01-28,14912,•See also previous entry: Beattie denies metaphors of impression that would have the brain impressed. He later takes frequently about the mind ad memory being impressed. Compare with Descartes and Berkeley on mind/brain impression. USE IN ENTRY. INTEREST.,"""When the brain itself is disordered, by disease, by drunkenness, or by other accidents, these philosophers are of opinion, that the impressions are disfigured, or instantly erased, or not at all received; in which case, there is either no remembrance, or a confused one.""",Impression,2012-01-28 18:21:30 UTC,Chapter II. Phenomena and Laws of Memory. Section I.
5586,Possessive Individualism,Reading,2005-07-25 00:00:00 UTC,"A methodical course of study, a love of order, and a habit of distributing our knowledge into classes, and referring every new acquisition to its proper head, will also be of use in promoting a ready Recollection. A merchant, who keeps regular books, can instanly turn to the record of any transaction, if he know the date of the subject of it, or the name of the person concerned in it: but they, who put everything in writing as it occurs, without any subsequent arrangement; or, in other words, who keep only any article, andmay employ an hour to no purpose in searching for that, which the other would have found in a moment. In Recollection, the case is nearly the same, with those who are accustomed to arrange their studies according to a plan, as contrasted with others, whose thoughts and whose affairs are all in confusion.--Traders often revise their books; to see whether every thing be neat, and accurate, and in its proper place. Students, in like manner, should often revise their knowledge, or at least the more useful branches of it; renew those impressions on the Memory, which had begun to decay through length of time; and be particularly careful to retain the plan, or general arrangement, of every part of erudition.
(III, p. 44)",,14921,•I've included twice: Account Book and Impression,"""Traders often revise their books; to see whether every thing be neat, and accurate, and in its proper place. Students, in like manner, should often revise their knowledge, or at least the more useful branches of it; renew those impressions on the Memory, which had begun to decay through length of time""","",2009-09-14 19:42:17 UTC,Chapter III. Methods of Improving Memory
5583,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 19:42:36 UTC,"A maxim, or moral saying, properly enough receives this form; both because it is supposed to be the fruit of meditation, and because it is designed to be engraven on the memory, which recalls it more easily by the help of such contrasted expressions. But where a string of such sentences succeed each other; where this becomes an author's favourite and prevailing manner of expressing himself, his style is faulty; and it is upon this account Seneca has been often, and justly, censured. Such a style appears too studied and laboured; it gives us the impression of an author attending more to his manner of saying things, than to the things themselves which he says. Dr. Young, though a writer of real genius, was too fond of Antitheses. In his Estimate of Human Life, we find whole pages that run in such a strain as this:
""The peasant complains aloud; the courtier in secret repines. In want, what distress? in affluence, what satiety? The great are under as much difficulty to expend with pleasure, as the mean to labour with success. The ignorant, through illgrounded hope, are disappointed; the knowing, through knowledge, despond. Ignorance, occasions mistake; mistake, disappointment; and disappointment is misery. Knowledge, on the other hand, gives true judgment; and true judgment of human things, gives a demonstration of their insufficiency to our peace.""