theme,metaphor,work_id,dictionary,provenance,id,created_at,updated_at,reviewed_on,comments,text,context
"","""Now as our Feet in vain venture to walk upon the River, till the Frost bind the Current, and harden the yielding Surface; so does the SOUL in vain seek to exert its higher Powers, the Powers I mean of REASON and INTELLECT, till IMAGINATION first fix the fluency of SENSE, and thus provide a proper Basis for the support of its higher Energies""",5351,"","",14354,2004-12-06 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:40:41 UTC,,•Of course the context is not epic... but still this has all the structure of an epic simile! INTEREST.
•I've included twice: Body and Liquid.,"Now as our Feet in vain venture to walk upon the River, till the Frost bind the Current, and harden the yielding Surface; so does the SOUL in vain seek to exert its higher Powers, the Powers I mean of REASON and INTELLECT, till IMAGINATION first fix the fluency of SENSE, and thus provide a proper Basis for the support of its higher Energies.
(p. 358)","Book III, chapter. iv"
Mind's Eye,"""Fond Fancy's eye, / That inly gives locality and form / To what she prizes best, full oft pervades / Those hidden caverns, where pale chrysolites, / And glittering spars dart a mysterious gleam / Of inborn lustre, from the garish day / Unborrow'd.""",5381,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),14472,2005-06-28 00:00:00 UTC,2013-08-22 19:43:17 UTC,,"","And thou hast cause for triumph! Kings themselves,
With all a nation's wealth, an army's toil,
If Nature frown averse, shall ne'er achieve
Such wonders: Nature's was the glorious gift;
Thy art her menial handmaid. Listening youths!
To whose ingenuous hearts I still address
The friendly strain, from such severe attempt
Let Prudence warn you. Turn to this clear rill,
Which, while I bid your bold ambition cease,
Runs murmuring at my side: O'er many a rood
Your skill may lead the wanderer; many a mound
Of pebbles raise, to fret her in her course
Impatient: louder then will be her song:
For she will 'plain, and gurgle, as she goes,
As does the widow'd ring-dove. Take, vain Pomp!
Thy lakes, thy long canals, thy trim cascades,
Beyond them all true taste will dearly prize
This little dimpling treasure. Mark the cleft,
Through which she bursts to day. Behind that rock
A Naiad dwells: Lineia is her name;
And she has sisters in contiguous cells,
Who never saw the sun. Fond Fancy's eye,
That inly gives locality and form
To what she prizes best, full oft pervades
Those hidden caverns, where pale chrysolites,
And glittering spars dart a mysterious gleam
Of inborn lustre, from the garish day
Unborrow'd. There, by the wild Goddess led,
Oft have I seen them bending o'er their urns,
Chaunting alternate airs of Dorian mood,
While smooth they comb'd their moist cerulean locks
With shells of living pearl. Yes, let me own,
To these, or classic deities like these,
From very childhood was I prone to pay
Harmless idolatry. My infant eyes
First open'd on that bleak and boist'rous shore,
Where Humber weds the nymphs of Trent and Ouse
To His, and Ocean's Tritons: thence full soon
My youth retir'd, and left the busy strand
To Commerce and to Care. In Margaret's grove,
Beneath whose time-worn shade old Camus sleeps,
Was next my tranquil station: Science there
Sat musing; and to those that lov'd the lore
Pointed, with mystic wand, to truths involv'd
In geometric symbols, scorning those,
Perchance too much, who woo'd the thriftless muse.
Here, though in warbling whisper oft I breath'd
The lay, were wanting, what young Fancy deems
The life-springs of her being, rocks, and caves,
And huddling brooks, and torrent-falls divine.
In quest of these, at Summer's vacant hour,
Pleas'd would I stray, when in a northern vale,
So chance ordain'd, a Naiad sad I found
Robb'd of her silver vase; I sooth'd the nymph
With song of sympathy, and curst the fiend
Who stole the gift of Thetis. Hence the cause
Why, favour'd by the blue-ey'd sisterhood,
They sooth with songs my solitary ear.
(Book III)",""
"","""Faults in the life breed errors in the brain""",5559,"",HDIS,14851,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:42:06 UTC,,"","Faults in the life breed errors in the brain,
And these, reciprocally, those again.
The mind and conduct mutually imprint
And stamp their image in each other's mint.
Each, sire and dam of an infernal race,
Begetting and conceiving all that's base.
(ll. 564-569, p. 278)",""
Speed of thought,"A ""glance of the mind"" is fleet",5567,"",HDIS,14876,2003-12-16 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:42:10 UTC,,"•In the previous stanza Selkirk wonders if friends now and then send ""A wish or a thought after me?"" (l. 38). The speed of the glance and the speed of the sent thoughts are here compared.","How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight,
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift winged arrows of light.
When I think of my own native land,
In a moment I seem to be there;
But alas! recollection at hand
Soon hurries me back to despair.
(ll. 41-8, p. 404)",Penultimate Stanza
"","""Every seminary of learning may be said to be surrounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may imbibe somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions.""",6796,"",Reading at Project Gutenberg and Google Books,18135,2011-02-20 20:07:48 UTC,2013-07-25 13:03:54 UTC,,"","Every seminary of learning may be said to be surrounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may imbibe somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions. Knowledge, thus obtained, has always something more popular and useful than that which is forced upon the mind by private precepts or solitary meditation. Besides, it is generally found that a youth more easily receives instruction from the companions of his studies, whose minds are nearly on a level with his own, than from those who are much his superiors; and it is from his equals only that he catches the fire of emulation.
(pp. 11-12)",""
"","""The fabric of the human mind is intricate and wonderful, as well as that of the structure of the human body. The faculties of the one are with no less wisdom adpated to their several ends, than the organs of the other.""",5206,"",Reading,18205,2011-03-06 19:38:20 UTC,2011-03-06 19:38:20 UTC,,"","The fabric of the human mind is intricate and wonderful, as well as that of the structure of the human body. The faculties of the one are with no less wisdom adpated to their several ends, than the organs of the other. Nay it is reasonable to think, that as the mind is a nobler work, and of a higher order than the body, even more of the wisdom and skill of the divine Architect hath been employed in its structure. It is therefore a subject highly worthy of inquiry on its own account, but still more worthy on account of the extensive influence which the knowledge of it hath over every other branch of science.
(I.i, p. 11)",Chapter I. Section 1.
"","""All that we know of the body, is owing to anatomical dissection and observation, and it must be by an anatomy of the mind that we can discover its powers and principles.""",5206,"",Reading,18209,2011-03-06 19:50:11 UTC,2011-03-06 19:50:11 UTC,,"","All that we know of the body, is owing to anatomical dissection and observation, and it must be by an anatomy of the mind that we can discover its powers and principles.
(I.i, p. 12)",Chapter I. Section 1.
"","""But the anatomist of the mind cannot have the same advantage.""",5206,"",Reading,18210,2011-03-06 19:53:44 UTC,2011-03-06 19:53:44 UTC,,"","An anatomist who hath happy opportunities, may have access to examine with his own eyes, and with equal accuracy, bodies of all different ages, sexes, and conditions; so that what is defective, obscure, or preternatural in one, may be discerned clearly, and in its most perfect state, in another. But the anatomist of the mind cannot have the same advantage. It is his own mind only that he can examine, with any degree of accuracy and distinctness. This is the only subject he can look into. He may, from outward signs, collect the operations of other minds; but these signs are for the most part ambiguous, and must be interpreted by what he perceives within himself.
(I.ii, p. 13)",Chapter I. Section 2.
"","""I beheld his body half wasted away with long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of sickness of the heart it was which arises from hope deferr'd.""",5301,"",Searching in LION,23058,2013-10-26 19:36:28 UTC,2013-10-26 19:36:28 UTC,,"","I beheld his body half wasted away with long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of sickness of the heart it was which arises from hope deferr'd. Upon looking nearer I saw him pale and feverish: in thirty years the western breeze had not once fann'd his blood--he had seen no sun, no moon in all that time--nor had the voice of friend or kinsman breathed through his lattice--his children--
(II, p. 31)",""
"","""But I could wish, continued I, to spy the nakedness of their hearts, and through the different disguises of customs, climates, and religion, find out what is good in them to fashion my own by--and therefore am I come.""",5301,"",Searching in LION,23061,2013-10-26 19:39:20 UTC,2013-10-26 19:39:20 UTC,,"","Excuse me, Monsieur le Count, said I--as for the nakedness of your land, if I saw it, I should cast my eyes over it with tears in them--and for that of your women (blushing at the idea he had excited in me) I am so evangelical in this, and have such a fellow-feeling for what ever is weak about them, that I would cover it with a garment, if I knew how to throw it on--But I could wish, continued I, to spy the nakedness of their hearts, and through the different disguises of customs, climates, and religion, find out what is good in them to fashion my own by--and therefore am I come.
It is for this reason, Monsieur le Count, continued I, that I have not seen the Palais royal--nor the Luxembourg--nor the Façade of the Louvre--nor have attempted to swell the catalogues we have of pictures, statues, and churches--I conceive every fair being as a temple, and would rather enter in, and see the original drawings and loose sketches hung up in it, than the transfiguration of Raphael itself.
The thirst of this, continued I, as impatient as that which inflames the breast of the connoisseur, has led me from my own home into France--and from France will lead me through Italy--'tis a quiet journey of the heart in pursuit of Nature, and those affections which rise out of her, which make us love each other--and the world, better than we do.
(II, pp. 66-8)",""