work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5088,Momus Glass,Reading,2009-09-14 19:38:59 UTC,"If the fixture of Momus' glass, in the human breast, according to the proposed emendations of that arch-critick, had taken place,--first, This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,--That the very wisest and the very gravest of us all, in one coin or other, must have paid window-money every day of our lives.
And, secondly, That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;--watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and after some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, &c.--then taken your pen and ink and set down nothing but what you have seen, and could have sworn to:--But this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet.""
(I.xxiii, Norton, p. 52)",2013-04-14,13687,"Reviewed 2013-04-14: discovered missing text in the middle of the quote. What the fuck?
Reviewed 2011-09-23
Reviewed 2004-11-18
•borrowed from later, now deleted entry:
Maggots?!
The OED gives for maggot, n1:
2. a. A whimsical, eccentric, strange, or perverse notion or idea. Now arch. and regional .
a1625 J. F LETCHER Women Pleas'd III .iv, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Eeeeee2 v/1, Are not you mad my friend?.. Have not you Maggots in your braines? c1645 J. H OWELL Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1688) II. 328 There's a strange Magot hath got into their Brain. 1680 DRYDEN Kind Keeper V.i. 57 What new Maggot's this? you dare not sure be jealous! 1685 S. W ESLEY (title )Maggots: Or, Poems on several subjects. a1692 T. S HADWELL Volunteers (1693) V.i. 51 M. G. Bl. Ha Fellow, what dost thou mean by a Maggot? Hop. Sir, a little Concern of mine in my way, alittle whim, or so sir. 1717 M. P RIOR Alma I.400 Your Horace owns, he various writ, As wild or sober maggots bit. 1784 R. B URNS Commonplace Bk. Aug., One who spends the hours..with Ossian, Shakspeare,..&c.; or, as the maggot takes him, a gun, a fiddle, or a song to make or mend. 1802 J. W OLCOT Pitt & Statue in Wks. (1812) IV. 501 Soon as a maggot crept into my head I caught a stump of pen and put it down. 1816 SCOTT Antiquary III. ix. 90 For a' the nonsense maggots that ye whiles take into your head, ye are the maist wise and discreet o' a' our country gentles. 1898 D. C. M URRAY Tales 255 She's got some maggot in her head about being loved for her own sake. 1928 D. L. S AYERS Lord Peter views Body 208 One o' these 'ere sersiety toffs wiv a maggot fer old books. 1957 G. H EYER Sylvester xvi. 180 'My love,' I said..'You've got a maggot in your Idea-pot.' ","""That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;--watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and after some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, &c.""",Animals and Optics,2013-04-14 20:54:57 UTC,"Vol. 1, Chap. 23"
4024,"",Reading,2013-09-11 21:19:30 UTC,"And whereas the mind of man, when he gives the spur and bridle to his thoughts, does never stop, but naturally sallies out into both extremes of high and low, of good and evil, his first flight of fancy commonly transports him to ideas of what is most perfect, finished, and exalted, till, having soared out of his own reach and sight, not well perceiving how near the frontiers of height and depth border upon each other, with the same course and wing he falls down plump into the lowest bottom of things, like one who travels the east into the west, or like a straight line drawn by its own length into a circle. Whether a tincture of malice in our natures makes us fond of furnishing every bright idea with its reverse, or whether reason, reflecting upon the sum of things, can, like the sun, serve only to enlighten one half of the globe, leaving the other half by necessity under shade and darkness, or whether fancy, flying up to the imagination of what is highest and best, becomes over-short, and spent, and weary, and suddenly falls, like a dead bird of paradise, to the ground; or whether, after all these metaphysical conjectures, I have not entirely missed the true reason; the proposition, however, which has stood me in so much circumstance is altogether true, that as the most uncivilised parts of mankind have some way or other climbed up into the conception of a God or Supreme Power, so they have seldom forgot to provide their fears with certain ghastly notions, which, instead of better, have served them pretty tolerably for a devil. And this proceeding seems to be natural enough, for it is with men whose imaginations are lifted up very high after the same rate as with those whose bodies are so, that as they are delighted with the advantage of a nearer contemplation upwards, so they are equally terrified with the dismal prospect of the precipice below. Thus in the choice of a devil it has been the usual method of mankind to single out some being, either in act or in vision, which was in most antipathy to the god they had framed. Thus also the sect of the AEolists possessed themselves with a dread and horror and hatred of two malignant natures, betwixt whom and the deities they adored perpetual enmity was established. The first of these was the chameleon, sworn foe to inspiration, who in scorn devoured large influences of their god, without refunding the smallest blast by eructation. The other was a huge terrible monster called Moulinavent, who with four strong arms waged eternal battle with all their divinities, dexterously turning to avoid their blows and repay them with interest.
(pp. 76-7 in OUP ed.)",,22711,"","""And whereas the mind of man, when he gives the spur and bridle to his thoughts, does never stop, but naturally sallies out into both extremes of high and low, of good and evil, his first flight of fancy commonly transports him to ideas of what is most perfect, finished, and exalted, till, having soared out of his own reach and sight, not well perceiving how near the frontiers of height and depth border upon each other, with the same course and wing he falls down plump into the lowest bottom of things, like one who travels the east into the west, or like a straight line drawn by its own length into a circle.""",Animals,2013-09-11 21:20:24 UTC,""