work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
6572,"",Reading,2009-07-09 00:00:00 UTC,"The first ingredient toward the art of canting, is, a competent share of inward light; that is to say, a large memory plentifully fraught with theological polysyllables, and mysterious texts from holy writ, applied and digested by those methods and mechanical operations already related: the bearers of this light resembling lanterns* compact of leaves from old Geneva Bibles; which invention, Sir H[u]mphrey Edw[i]n, during his mayoralty, of happy memory, highly approved and advanced, affirming the Scripture to be now fulfilled where it says, Thy word is a lantern to my feet, and a light to my paths.
(p. 135)",,17461,"","""The first ingredient toward the art of canting, is, a competent share of inward light; that is to say, a large memory plentifully fraught with theological polysyllables, and mysterious texts from holy writ, applied and digested by those methods and mechanical operations already related: the bearers of this light resembling lanterns* compact of leaves from old Geneva Bibles; which invention, Sir H[u]mphrey Edw[i]n, during his mayoralty, of happy memory, highly approved and advanced, affirming the Scripture to be now fulfilled where it says, Thy word is a lantern to my feet, and a light to my paths.""","",2009-09-14 19:50:14 UTC,""
6572,"",Reading,2009-07-09 00:00:00 UTC,"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)",,17466,I've included twice: Lantern and Fire,"""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.""","",2009-09-14 19:50:16 UTC,""
4495,Enlightenment,Reading,2011-03-31 21:43:04 UTC,"VIII. But this is what I foresaw, a flood of light let in at once upon the mind being apt to dazzle and disorder, rather than enlighten it. Was I not pinched in time, the regular way would be to have begun with the circumstantials of religion; next to have attacked the mysteries of Christianity; after that proceeded to the practical doctrines; and in the last place to have extirpated that which, of all other religious prejudices, being the first taught, and basis of the rest, hath taken the deepest root in our minds, I mean the belief of a God. I do not wonder it sticks with you, having known several very ingenious men who found it difficult to free themselves from this prejudice.
(p. 43)",,18271,anti-Enlightenment,"""But this is what I foresaw, a flood of light let in at once upon the mind being apt to dazzle and disorder, rather than enlighten it.""",Optics,2011-03-31 21:43:04 UTC,Dialogue I
7312,"",Reading at Lewis Walpole Library,2012-10-10 18:19:37 UTC,"I am much more inclined to give Credit to Buxtorf; nor is it improbable that Pythagoras, who spent twenty-eight Years at Egypt in his Studies, brought this Art, together with some Arcana of Philosophy, into Greece; the reason for which might be, That Philosophy and PUNNING were a mutual Assistance to each other: For, says he, PUNS are like so many Torch-Lights in the Head, that give the Soul a very distinct View of those Images, which she before seemed to groap after as if she had been imprisoned in a Dungeon. From whence he looked upon PUNS to be so Sacred, and had such a regard to them, that he left a Precept to his Disciples, forbidding them to eat Beans, because they were called in Greek [Greek letters]. Let not, says he, one Grain of the Seed of Beans be lost; but preserve and scatter them over all Greece, that both our Gardens and our Fields may flourish with a Vegetable, which, on account of its Name, not only brings an Honour to our Country, but, as it disperses its Effluvia in the Air, may also, by a secret Impulse, prepare the Soul for PUNNING, which I esteem the first and great Felicity of Life.
(Preface, v-vi)",,19934,"","""For, says he, PUNS are like so many Torch-Lights in the Head, that give the Soul a very distinct View of those Images, which she before seemed to groap after as if she had been imprisoned in a Dungeon.""","",2012-10-10 18:19:37 UTC,Preface
4178,"",Reading,2013-09-12 17:19:40 UTC,"Hyl.
I have been a long time distrusting my Senses; methought I saw things by a dim Light, and thro false Glasses. Now, the Glasses are removed, and a new Light breaks in upon my Understanding. I am clearly convinced, that I see things in their native Forms; and am no longer in Pain a|bout their unknown Natures, or absolute Existence. This is the State I find myself in at present: Tho, indeed, the Course that brought me to it, I do not yet thorowly comprehend. You set out upon the same Principles, that Academics, Cartesians, and the like Sects, usually do; and, for a long time, it looked as if you were advancing their Philosophical Scepticism; but, in the End, your Conclusions are directly opposite to theirs.
(pp. 165-6)",,22730,"","""I have been a long time distrusting my Senses; methought I saw things by a dim Light, and thro false Glasses. Now, the Glasses are removed, and a new Light breaks in upon my Understanding.""","",2013-09-12 17:19:40 UTC,""