id,comments,provenance,dictionary,created_at,reviewed_on,work_id,theme,context,updated_at,metaphor,text
12427,•Rich passage. Postcolonial issues as well: savage as blank slates
•Author reverses the argument of innatists who claim blank slate can't account for diversity.
•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Blank,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",Writing,2006-10-10 00:00:00 UTC,,4711,Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy; Innate Ideas; Negated Metaphor,"",2009-09-14 19:36:58 UTC,"""In this, therefore, I am forced to differ from that great Philosopher and Master of Reason, Mr. Locke, who denies and argues against all innate Ideas in general, and of every Kind: He supposes the Soul originally to be as a rasa Tabula, or Blank without any Impression, or distinguishing Character at all, which would be either nothing, or nothing that we can conceive or form any Notion or Idea of.""","5. These animal Sensations, Appetites, and Instincts therefore, as they are natural and necessary, must be innate, or co-eval and co-existent with the Animal or sensitive Creature itself, since one cannot conceive of an Animal, or any animal Life and Motion, without them. In this, therefore, I am forced to differ from that great Philosopher and Master of Reason, Mr. Locke, who denies and argues against all innate Ideas in general, and of every Kind: He supposes the Soul originally to be as a rasa Tabula, or Blank without any Impression, or distinguishing Character at all, which would be either nothing, or nothing that we can conceive or form any Notion or Idea of; but a Man or his Penetration, and Strength of Judgment, could not but see some Defect in his Reasoning, and that the Word Idea here was too general; and therefore, in prosecuting the Argument, he silently changes the Term Idea for Principle, and then proves very clearly, that we have no innate Principles, Perceptions of Truth, or Judgment of Reason, or no innate Ideas of Reflection: All this is acquired gradually by Observation and Experience, and by comparing one Thing with another, in the several Relations, Reasons, and Proportions of Things. In these Acquisitions and Improvements of Reason, Understand [end page 73] ing, and Judgment, Men are vastly different according to their different Capacities, Opportunities, Attention, and Degrees of Application; and nothing of all this is innate or born with us. In almost every Thing else, I must own Mr. Locke as my Master, and the first Guide and Director of my Understanding: But as this justly celebrated Philosopher, in this Case, might seem to have used the Word Idea in its most general Acceptation, so as to include all the original, simple Impressions of Sense, Appetite, and Instinct; I thought it necessary to remove such a Difficulty or Prejudice, lest the Authority of so great a Man, mistaken and misapplied, might lead others into Error, and darken and perplex, instead of clearing up the Truth to them. It would be equally contrary to Experience, and the present Constitution of Nature, either to suppose, that the Ideas of Sense, Appetite, and Instinct are not innate, or that the Perceptions of the Understanding, or the Judgments and Conclusions of Reason are so."
14254,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""steel"" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO and ECCO-TCP.",Metal,2005-06-09 00:00:00 UTC,,5313,"","",2014-03-12 19:30:06 UTC,"'To lock the breast, and steel th' obdurate heart, / Amid the piercing cries of sore distress / Impenetrable""","How doth it please and fill the memory
With deeds of brave renown, while on each hand
Historic urns and breathing statues rise,
And speaking busts! Sweet Scipio, Marius stern,
Pompey superb, the spirit-stirring form
Of Cæsar, raptur'd with the charm of rule
And boundless fame; impatient for exploits,
His eager eyes upcast, he soars in thought
Above all height: and his own Brutus see,
Desponding Brutus, dubious of the right,
In evil days of faith, of public weal,
Solicitous and sad. Thy next regard
Be Tully's graceful attitude; uprais'd,
His out-stretch'd arm he waves, in act to speak
Before the silent masters of the world,
And Eloquence arrays him. There behold,
Prepar'd for combat in the front of war,
The pious brothers; jealous Alba stands
In fearful expectation of the strife,
And youthful Rome intent: the kindred foes
Fall on each other's neck in silent tears;
In sorrowful benevolence embrace--
Howe'er, they soon unsheath the flashing sword,
Their country calls to arms; now all in vain
The mother clasps the knee, and ev'n the fair
Now weeps in vain; their country calls to arms.
Such virtue Clelia, Cocles, Manlius, rous'd;
Such were the Fabii, Decii; so inspir'd
The Scipios battled, and the Gracchi spoke:
So rose the Roman state. Me now, of these
Deep-musing, high ambitious thoughts inflame
Greatly to serve my country, distant land,
And build me virtuous fame; nor shall the dust
Of these fall'n piles with show of sad decay
Avert the good resolve, mean argument,
The fate alone of matter.--Now the brow
We gain enraptur'd; beauteously distinct
The num'rous porticos and domes upswell,
With obelisks and columns interpos'd,
And pine, and fir, and oak: so fair a scene
Sees not the dervise from the spiral tomb
Of ancient Chammos, while his eye beholds
Proud Memphis' relics o'er the Ægyptian plain:
Nor hoary hermit from Hymettus' brow,
Though graceful Athens, in the vale beneath,
Along the windings of the Muse's stream,
Lucid Ilyssus, weeps her silent schools
And groves, unvisited by bard or sage.
Amid the tow'ry ruins, huge, supreme,
Th' enormous amphitheatre behold,
Mountainous pile! o'er whose capacious womb
Pours the broad firmament its varied light;
While from the central floor the seats ascend
Round above round, slow-wid'ning to the verge,
A circuit vast and high: nor less had held
Imperial Rome, and her attendant realms,
When drunk with rule she will'd the fierce delight,
And op'd the gloomy caverns, whence out-rush'd,
Before th' innumerable shouting crowd,
The fiery, madded, tyrants of the wilds,
Lions and tigers, wolves and elephants,
And desp'rate men, more fell. Abhorr'd intent!
By frequent converse with familiar death,
To kindle brutal daring apt for war;
To lock the breast, and steel th' obdurate heart,
Amid the piercing cries of sore distress
Impenetrable.--But away thine eye!
Behold yon steepy cliff; the modern pile
Perchance may now delight, while that, rever'd
In ancient days, the page alone declares,
Or narrow coin through dim cærulean rust.
The fane was Jove's, its spacious golden roof,
O'er thick-surrounding temples beaming wide,
Appear'd, as when above the morning hills
Half the round sun ascends; and tow'rd aloft,
Sustain'd by columns huge, innumerous
As cedars proud on Canaan's verdant heights
Dark'ning their idols, when Astarte lur'd
Too prosp'rous Israel from his living strength.
(cf. pp. 6-10 in 1740; cf. pp. 224-7 in Dodsley)"
17863,"","Searching ""emporium"" in ECCO",Throne,2010-06-07 16:43:24 UTC,2011-05-26,6716,"","",2011-05-26 19:16:03 UTC,"""Now in order to restore the Fibres of the Brain under the Melancholy Madness, and recover the Mind from those most gloomy, dejecting Circumstances, to which it is chain'd during the Force of this Disease, we must endeavour to bring their Machinulae into closer Contacts with each other; that is, resore their Springyness, or contracitle Powers, whereby the Ideas of sensible Objects may strike the Emporium of the Brain, or Seat of the Mind, with a regular Impulse; and in order to effect these several Intentions, it will be necessary to prescribe all manner of Remedies that may communicate a Stimulus to the Solids.""","Now in order to restore the Fibres of the Brain under the Melancholy Madness, and recover the Mind from those most gloomy, dejecting Circumstances, to which it is chain'd during the Force of [end page 393] this Disease, we must endeavour to bring their Machinulae into closer Contacts with each other; that is, resore their Springyness, or contracitle Powers, whereby the Ideas of sensible Objects may strike the Emporium of the Brain, or Seat of the Mind, with a regular Impulse; and in order to effect these several Intentions, it will be necessary to prescribe all manner of Remedies that may communicate a Stimulus to the Solids.
(p. 393-4)"