work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
7400,"",Reading,2013-06-05 21:32:16 UTC,"Wisdom, though richer than Peruvian mines,
And sweeter than the sweet ambrosial hive,--
What is she but the means of happiness?
That unobtain'd, than Folly more a fool;
A melancholy fool, without her bells.
Friendship, the means of wisdom, richly gives
The precious end which makes our wisdom wise.
Nature, in zeal for human amity,
Denies or damps an undivided joy.
Joy is an import; joy is an exchange;
Joy flies monopolists; it calls for two;
Rich fruit, heaven-planted, never pluck'd by one!
Needful auxiliars are our friends, to give
To social man true relish of himself.
Full on ourselves descending in a line,
Pleasure's bright beam is feeble in delight:
Delight intense is taken by rebound;
Reverberated pleasures fire the breast.
(ll. 498-515, p. 64 in CUP edition)",,20417,"","""Full on ourselves descending in a line, / Pleasure's bright beam is feeble in delight: / Delight intense is taken by rebound; / Reverberated pleasures fire the breast.""","",2013-06-05 21:32:16 UTC,Night the Second
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 15:58:24 UTC,"Ye gentle theologues of calmer kind!
Whose constitution dictates to your pen,
Who, cold yourselves, think ardour comes from hell!
Think not our passions from Corruption sprung,
Though to Corruption now they lend their wings;
That is their mistress, not their mother. All
(And justly) Reason deem Divine: I see,
I feel a grandeur in the Passions too,
Which speaks their high descent, and glorious end;
Which speaks them rays of an eternal fire.
In Paradise itself they burnt as strong,
Ere Adam fell, though wiser in their aim.
Like the proud Eastern, struck by Providence,
What, though our passions are run mad, and stoop,
With low terrestrial appetite, to graze
On trash, on toys, dethroned from high desire?
Yet still, through their disgrace, no feeble ray
Of greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell:
But these (like that fallen monarch when reclaim'd)
When Reason moderates the rein aright,
Shall re-ascend, remount their former sphere,
Where once they soar'd illustrious; ere seduced,
By wanton Eve 's debauch, to stroll on earth,
And set the sublunary world on fire.
(ll. 521-544, p. 192 in CUP edition)",,20569,"","""I see, / I feel a grandeur in the Passions too, / Which speaks their high descent, and glorious end; / Which speaks them rays of an eternal fire.""","",2013-06-12 15:58:24 UTC,Night the Seventh
7665,"",Reading,2013-09-02 03:15:46 UTC,"No man is happy till he thinks on earth
There breathes not a more happy than himself:
Then Envy dies, and Love o'erflows on all;
And Love o'erflowing makes an angel here.
Such angels all, entitled to repose
On Him who governs fate: though Tempest frowns,
Though Nature shakes, how soft to lean on Heaven!
To lean on Him on whom archangels lean!
With inward eyes, and silent as the grave,
They stand collecting every beam of thought,
Till their hearts kindle with Divine delight;
For all their thoughts, like angels seen of old
In Israel's dream, come from, and go to, heaven:
Hence are they studious of sequester'd scenes;
While noise and dissipation comfort thee.
(pp. 173-4, ll. 935-49)",,22636,"","""With inward eyes, and silent as the grave, / They stand collecting every beam of thought, / Till their hearts kindle with Divine delight; / For all their thoughts, like angels seen of old / In Israel's dream, come from, and go to, heaven.""",Inhabitants,2013-09-02 03:15:46 UTC,Night the Eighth