updated_at,reviewed_on,context,comments,theme,id,text,provenance,created_at,work_id,metaphor,dictionary
2009-09-14 19:34:43 UTC,,Second Stanza,"•Cross-reference: in Dryden's ""Threnodia Augustalis"" as well. Blackmore also uses this expression","",10106," For thy approaching Grief
A speaking Sadness sat in ev'ry Eye,
All strove to give Relief,
As if they fear'd some Storm was nigh:
Thy very Eyes their coming Fate confest,
And their Resentment for thy Fall exprest.
Thy Soul retir'd to her inmost Room,
Dreading the Pressure of the Stroke to come:
But see, Heav'ns peculiar Care
Saves and protects the Fair;
And often is at the Expence
Of Miracles, to save such Excellence:
So many Thoughts great Jove it cost
To make a Piece most exquisitely Fine,
He would not have the Copy lost
By Death's unruly Hands; much less by thine.
(p. 139, ll.19-34)","Searching ""soul"" and ""room"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,3909,"""Thy Soul retir'd to her inmost Room, / Dreading the Pressure of the Stroke to come""",Rooms
2009-09-14 19:34:43 UTC,,"","","",10111,"When sent from Heav'n a more than common Guest
Takes up his dwelling in a mortal Breast;
And when a Soul of large Dimensions comes
T' inform the human flesh--compacted Rooms,
The gladsome Fabrick full of Beauty shows,
No common Splendour from the Windows flows:
A sacred Brightness doth the Seat attend,
And th'Inmate prosp'rous Omens do befriend.
Quick Worth, Præcocious Vertue, Early Grace,
And ripe Perfeetion doth the Soul embrace.
Inspired Wit fills the capacious Mind,
And forward Sense, to lofty flights enclin'd,
Prevents the tedious Discipline of Schools,
The Loyt'ring Art of Pædagogick Rules.",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2006-03-15 00:00:00 UTC,3910,"""And when a Soul of large Dimensions comes / T' inform the human flesh--compacted Rooms, / The gladsome Fabrick full of Beauty shows""",Rooms
2013-09-11 21:32:52 UTC,2003-10-23,"","•Previous metaphors are replayed in this passage. I haven't extracted them and stored them in their own record.
•I've separated fancy, understanding, and imagination into three separate entries (5/29/2003).","",10426,"Having, therefore, so narrowly passed through this intricate difficulty, the reader will, I am sure, agree with me in the conclusion that, if the moderns mean by madness only a disturbance or transposition of the brain, by force of certain vapours issuing up from the lower faculties, then has this madness been the parent of all those mighty revolutions that have happened in empire, in philosophy, and in religion. For the brain in its natural position and state of serenity disposeth its owner to pass his life in the common forms, without any thought of subduing multitudes to his own power, his reasons, or his visions, and the more he shapes his understanding by the pattern of human learning, the less he is inclined to form parties after his particular notions, because that instructs him in his private infirmities, as well as in the stubborn ignorance of the people. But when a man’s fancy gets astride on his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense is kicked out of doors, the first proselyte he makes is himself; and when that is once compassed, the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others, a strong delusion always operating from without as vigorously as from within. For cant and vision are to the ear and the eye the same that tickling is to the touch. Those entertainments and pleasures we most value in life are such as dupe and play the wag with the senses. For if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition, that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived. And first, with relation to the mind or understanding, it is manifest what mighty advantages fiction has over truth, and the reason is just at our elbow: because imagination can build nobler scenes and produce more wonderful revolutions than fortune or Nature will be at the expense to furnish. Nor is mankind so much to blame in his choice thus determining him, if we consider that the debate merely lies between things past and things conceived, and so the question is only this: whether things that have place in the imagination may not as properly be said to exist as those that are seated in the memory? which may be justly held in the affirmative, and very much to the advantage of the former, since this is acknowledged to be the womb of things, and the other allowed to be no more than the grave. Again, if we take this definition of happiness and examine it with reference to the senses, it will be acknowledged wonderfully adapt. How sad and insipid do all objects accost us that are not conveyed in the vehicle of delusion! How shrunk is everything as it appears in the glass of Nature, so that if it were not for the assistance of artificial mediums, false lights, refracted angles, varnish, and tinsel, there would be a mighty level in the felicity and enjoyments of mortal men. If this were seriously considered by the world, as I have a certain reason to suspect it hardly will, men would no longer reckon among their high points of wisdom the art of exposing weak sides and publishing infirmities--an employment, in my opinion, neither better nor worse than that of unmasking, which, I think, has never been allowed fair usage, either in the world or the play-house.
(pp. 82-3 in OUP ed.)",Reading,2003-10-21 00:00:00 UTC,4024,"""But when a man's fancy gets astride his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors; the first proselyte he makes is himself, and when that is once compassed the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others, a strong delusion always operating from without as vigorously as from within.""",""
2011-01-04 16:41:22 UTC,,"",Text grabbed online. Best REVISIT and check.,"",10439,"Having, therefore, so narrowly passed through this intricate difficulty, the reader will, I am sure, agree with me in the conclusion that, if the moderns mean by madness only a disturbance or transposition of the brain, by force of certain vapours issuing up from the lower faculties, then has this madness been the parent of all those mighty revolutions that have happened in empire, in philosophy, and in religion. For the brain in its natural position and state of serenity disposeth its owner to pass his life in the common forms, without any thought of subduing multitudes to his own power, his reasons, or his visions, and the more he shapes his understanding by the pattern of human learning, the less he is inclined to form parties after his particular notions, because that instructs him in his private infirmities, as well as in the stubborn ignorance of the people. But when a man's fancy gets astride on his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense is kicked out of doors, the first proselyte he makes is himself; and when that is once compassed, the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others, a strong delusion always operating from without as vigorously as from within. For cant and vision are to the ear and the eye the same that tickling is to the touch. Those entertainments and pleasures we most value in life are such as dupe and play the wag with the senses. For if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition, that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived. And first, with relation to the mind or understanding, it is manifest what mighty advantages fiction has over truth, and the reason is just at our elbow: because imagination can build nobler scenes and produce more wonderful revolutions than fortune or Nature will be at the expense to furnish. Nor is mankind so much to blame in his choice thus determining him, if we consider that the debate merely lies between things past and things conceived, and so the question is only this: whether things that have place in the imagination may not as properly be said to exist as those that are seated in the memory; which may be justly held in the affirmative, and very much to the advantage of the former, since this is acknowledged to be the womb of things, and the other allowed to be no more than the grave. Again, if we take this definition of happiness and examine it with reference to the senses, it will be acknowledged wonderfully adapt. How sad and insipid do all objects accost us that are not conveyed in the vehicle of delusion! How shrunk is everything as it appears in the glass of Nature, so that if it were not for the assistance of artificial mediums, false lights, refracted angles, varnish, and tinsel, there would be a mighty level in the felicity and enjoyments of mortal men. If this were seriously considered by the world, as I have a certain reason to suspect it hardly will, men would no longer reckon among their high points of wisdom the art of exposing weak sides and publishing infirmities--an employment, in my opinion, neither better nor worse than that of unmasking, which, I think, has never been allowed fair usage, either in the world or the playhouse.
(pp. 82-3)","Reading Melinda Alliker Rabb's ""'Soft Figures' and 'a Pastes of Composition Rare': Pope, Swift, and Memory"" in SECC vol. 19, p. 186",2003-10-21 00:00:00 UTC,4024,"""Whether Things that have Place in the Imagination, may not as properly be said to exist, as those that are seated in the Memory: which may be justly held in the affirmative, and very much to the advantage fo the former, since it is acknowledged to be the Womb of Things, and the other allowed to be no more than the Grave.""",""
2013-11-02 15:27:42 UTC,,"",I've included twice: Fort and Avenue. OED notes avenue originally had a military sense. ,"",17451,"The practitioners of this famous art proceed, in general, upon the following fundamental, that the corruption of the senses is the generation of the spirit; because the senses in men are so many avenues to the fort of reason, which, in this operation, is wholly blocked up. All endeavours must be therefore used, either to divert, bind up, stupify, fluster, and amuse the senses, or else, to justle them out of their stations; and while they are either absent, or otherwise employed, or engaged in a civil war against each other, the spirit enters and performs its part.
(p. 130)",Reading,2009-07-09 00:00:00 UTC,6572,"""The practitioners of this famous art proceed, in general, upon the following fundamental, that the corruption of the senses is the generation of the spirit; because the senses in men are so many avenues to the fort of reason, which, in this operation, is wholly blocked up.""",""
2009-09-14 19:50:17 UTC,,"","","",17469,"I should now have done, if I were not convinced that whatever I have yet advanced upon this subject is liable to great exception. For allowing all I have said to be true, it may still be justly objected that there is, in the commonwealth of artificial enthusiasm, some real foundation for art to work upon in the temper and complexion of individuals, which other mortals seem to want. Observe but the gesture, the motion, and the countenance, of some choice professors though in their most familiar actions, you will find them of a different race from the rest of human creatures. Remark your commonest pretender to a light within, how dark, and dirty, and gloomy he is without; as lanterns which, the more light they bear in their bodies, cast out so much the more soot and smoke and fuliginous matter to adhere to the sides. Listen but to their ordinary talk, and look on the mouth that delivers it; you will imagine you are hearing some ancient oracle, and your understanding will be equally informed. Upon these and the like reasons, certain objectors pretend to put it beyond all doubt that there must be a sort of preternatural spirit, possessing the heads of the modern saints; and some will have it to be the heat of zeal working upon the dregs of ignorance, as other spirits are produced from lees by the force of fire. Some again think that when our earthly tabernacles are disordered and desolate, shaken and out of repair, the spirit delights to dwell within them, as houses are said to be haunted, when they are forsaken and gone to decay.
(p. 138)",Reading,2009-07-09 00:00:00 UTC,6572,"""Some again think that when our earthly tabernacles are disordered and desolate, shaken and out of repair, the spirit delights to dwell within them, as houses are said to be haunted, when they are forsaken and gone to decay.""",""
2013-07-24 15:07:58 UTC,,"","","",21990,"I.
Why should I grovel here below?
Mistake that hopeful Bliss to come?
At shadows grasp, as Heathens do,
And never think of future Doom?
II.
No, I will break this House of Clay,
Which clogs my fleeter Thoughts and Mind,
My Guardian Angel bids away,
Where I Eternal Bliss may find.
(pp. 14-15, ll. 1-8)","Searching ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2013-07-24 15:07:58 UTC,7558,"""No, I will break this House of Clay, / Which clogs my fleeter Thoughts and Mind.""",Rooms
2013-07-24 15:13:05 UTC,,"","","",21991,"Condemn'd in this dark Prison must I here,
Watch till the Trumpet strike mine Ear?
Must I ne'er know thy Goodness and thy Love,
Because I did transgress thy Will above?
Must Clouds and Vapours still obscure my Mind?
Must I to this dark Sphere be thus confin'd?
No, no, I will launch out, and wing away,
Unto the Regions of a brighter Day.
Some Glances of a State that's past I find,
Take up the Corners of my thoughtful Mind,
As cover'd Embers when they're blown, create
A Flame, and represent my former State.
The Flashings of such Joy do strike so strong
My Temples, that I can't endure it long,
I must dissolve and in these Thoughts expire,
And like the Prophet's Coach ascend in Fire.
(pp. 19-20, ll. 1-16)","Searching ""mind"" in C-H Lion",2013-07-24 15:13:05 UTC,7559,"""Condemn'd in this dark Prison must I here, / Watch till the Trumpet strike mine Ear? / Must I ne'er know thy Goodness and thy Love, / Because I did transgress thy Will above? / Must Clouds and Vapours still obscure my Mind?""",""
2013-07-24 15:14:42 UTC,,"","","",21992,"Condemn'd in this dark Prison must I here,
Watch till the Trumpet strike mine Ear?
Must I ne'er know thy Goodness and thy Love,
Because I did transgress thy Will above?
Must Clouds and Vapours still obscure my Mind?
Must I to this dark Sphere be thus confin'd?
No, no, I will launch out, and wing away,
Unto the Regions of a brighter Day.
Some Glances of a State that's past I find,
Take up the Corners of my thoughtful Mind,
As cover'd Embers when they're blown, create
A Flame, and represent my former State.
The Flashings of such Joy do strike so strong
My Temples, that I can't endure it long,
I must dissolve and in these Thoughts expire,
And like the Prophet's Coach ascend in Fire.
(pp. 19-20, ll. 1-16)","Searching ""mind"" in C-H Lion",2013-07-24 15:14:42 UTC,7559,"""Some Glances of a State that's past I find, / Take up the Corners of my thoughtful Mind, / As cover'd Embers when they're blown, create / A Flame, and represent my former State.""",Rooms
2013-09-11 21:35:45 UTC,,"","","",22720,"But to return to madness. It is certain that, according to the system I have above deduced, every species thereof proceeds from a redundancy of vapours; therefore, as some kinds of frenzy give double strength to the sinews, so there are of other species which add vigour, and life, and spirit to the brain. Now it usually happens that these active spirits, getting possession of the brain, resemble those that haunt other waste and empty dwellings, which for want of business either vanish and carry away a piece of the house, or else stay at home and fling it all out of the windows. By which are mystically displayed the two principal branches of madness, and which some philosophers, not considering so well as I, have mistook to be different in their causes, over-hastily assigning the first to deficiency and the other to redundance.
(p. 84 in OUP ed.)",Reading,2013-09-11 21:35:45 UTC,4024,"""Now it usually happens that these active spirits, getting possession of the brain, resemble those that haunt other waste and empty dwellings, which for want of business either vanish and carry away a piece of the house, or else stay at home and fling it all out of the windows.""",Inhabitants and Rooms