id,comments,provenance,dictionary,created_at,reviewed_on,work_id,theme,context,updated_at,metaphor,text
10426,"•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).",Reading,"",2003-10-21 00:00:00 UTC,2003-10-23,4024,"","",2013-09-11 21:32:52 UTC,"""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.""","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.)"
10783,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),Inhabitants,2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,,4167,"",Book VI,2013-08-07 14:43:02 UTC,"""The watchful Centinels at ev'ry Gate, / At ev'ry Passage to the Senses wait.""","These Out-guards of the Mind are sent abroad,
And still patrolling beat the neighb'ring Road:
Or to the Parts remote obedient fly,
Keep Posts advanc'd, and on the Frontier lye.
The watchful Centinels at ev'ry Gate,
At ev'ry Passage to the Senses wait.
Still travel to and fro the Nervous way,
And their Impressions to the Brain convey,
Where their Report the Vital Envoys make,
And with new Orders are remanded back.
Quick, as a darted Beam of Light, they go,
Thro' diff'rent Paths to diff'rent Organs flow,
Whence they reflect as swiftly to the Brain,
To give it Pleasure, or to give it Pain.
(VI, ll. 670-683, pp. 305-6)"
12261,"",Reading,Empire,2009-09-14 19:36:47 UTC,2011-05-20,4663,"",I've included the complete poem,2011-05-20 15:45:09 UTC,"""Thus lawless conquerors our town restore, / With the sad marks of their inhuman power; / No art, nor time, such ravage can repair; / No superstructure can these ruins bear.""","The Returned Heart
It must be mine! no other heart could prove
Constant so long, yet so ill-used in love.
How bruised and scarified! how deep the wound!
Senseless, of life no symptom to be found!
Can it be this, that left me young and gay?
Just in the gaudy bloom it fled away:
Unhappy rover! what couldst thou pretend?
Where tyrants reign, can innocence defend?
I'll vow thou art so altered, I scarce know
Thou art the thing, which Strephon sighed for so:
Look how it trembles! and fresh drops declare
It is the same, and he the murderer.
Thus lawless conquerors our town restore,
With the sad marks of their inhuman power;
No art, nor time, such ravage can repair;
No superstructure can these ruins bear.
(p. 177)"
18944,Stuck to wrong title: deleted entry and replaced it here.,Searching in HDIS (Prose),"",2011-07-20 19:36:17 UTC,2011-07-20,4346,"","",2011-07-20 19:36:43 UTC,"""Mine [heart] open lies, without the least Defence; / No Guard of Art; but its own Innocence; / Under which Fort it could fierce Storms endure: / But from thy Wit I find no Fort secure."""," When Friends Advice with Lovers Forces joyn,
They conquer Hearts more fortified than mine.
Mine open lies, without the least Defence;
No Guard of Art; but its own Innocence;
Under which Fort it could fierce Storms endure:
But from thy Wit I find no Fort secure.
Ah! why would'st thou assist mine Enemy,
Whose Merits were almost too strong for me?
For now thy Wit makes me almost adore,
And ready to pronounce him Conqueror:
But that his Kindness then would grow, I fear,
Too weighty for my weak Desert to bear:
I fear 'twou'd even to Extreams improve;
For Jealousy, they say's th' Extream of Love.
Even Thou, my dear Exilius, he'd suspect;
If I but look on thee, I him neglect.
Not only Men, as innocent as thou,
But Females he'd mistrust, and Heaven too.
Thus best things may be turn'd to greatest Harm,
As the Lord's Prayer said backward, proves a Charm. [...]
(p. 48)"
20413,"",Reading,"",2013-06-05 21:25:02 UTC,,7400,"",Night the Second,2013-06-05 21:25:02 UTC,"""Speech ventilates our intellectual fire; / Speech burnishes our mental magazine, / Brightens for ornament, and whets for use.""","Know'st thou, Lorenzo, what a friend contains?
As bees mix'd nectar draw from fragrant flowers,
So men, from FRIENDSHIP, wisdom and delight;
Twins tied by Nature, if they part, they die.
Hast thou no friend to set thy mind abroach?
Good sense will stagnate. Thoughts shut up want air,
And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun.
Had thought been all, sweet speech had been denied;
Speech, thought's canal! speech, thought's criterion too!
Thought in the mine may come forth gold or dross;
When coin'd in word, we know its real worth.
If sterling, store it for thy future use;
'Twill buy thee benefit; perhaps, renown.
Thought, too, deliver'd, is the more possess'd:
Teaching we learn; and giving we retain
The births of intellect; when dumb, forgot.
Speech ventilates our intellectual fire;
Speech burnishes our mental magazine,
Brightens for ornament, and whets for use.
What numbers, sheath'd in erudition, lie,
Plunged to the hilts in venerable tomes,
And rusted in; who might have borne an edge,
And play'd a sprightly beam, if born to speech;
If born blest heirs of half their mother's tongue!
'Tis thought's exchange which, like the' alternate push
Of waves conflicting, breaks the learned scum,
And defecates the student's standing pool.
(ll. 461-487, p. 63 in CUP edition)"
22256,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,"",2013-08-17 15:30:37 UTC,,7595,"","",2013-08-17 15:30:37 UTC,"""So weak is the Frailty of Human Nature, that we can never be too secure, tho' arm'd with the sublimest Vertue, against the repeated Attacks of so many Passions, as constantly besiege us; and, tho' the Garrison of the Mind may be never so well provided with all Means of Resistance, the greatest of Qualities, Vertues, and Perfections, that our Nature is capable of attaining; nevertheless Treachery, within, Force or Stratagem, from without, may surprize and defeat us.""","So weak is the Frailty of Human Nature, that we can never be too secure, tho' arm'd with the sublimest Vertue, against the repeated Attacks of so many Passions, as constantly besiege us; and, tho' the Garrison of the Mind may be never so well provided with all Means of Resistance, the greatest of Qualities, Vertues, and Perfections, that our Nature is capable of attaining; nevertheless Treachery, within, Force or Stratagem, from without, may surprize and defeat us: An Example of which Infirmity the following Story will furnish the Reader, and teach him, of all Things, to avoid, what is call'd Spiritual Pride, That Contempt of another for not being so good, as himself, when he sees how, in an Instant, the greatest Piety and Religion, may be chang'd, (by indulging only one dangerous Passion) into the other Extream of Wickedness; so that we may apply to the Lubricity of Human Vertue, what a wise Man of Greece, said of Happiness, That it can never be determin'd, 'till Death.
(pp. 14-15)"
22640,"",Reading,Metal,2013-09-02 03:20:49 UTC,,7665,"",Night the Eighth,2013-09-02 03:20:49 UTC,"""Imagination is the Paphian shop, / Where feeble Happiness, like Vulcan, lame, / Bids foul Ideas, in their dark recess, / And hot as hell, (which kindled the black fires,) / With wanton art, those fatal arrows form / Which murder all thy time, health, wealth, and fame.""","Imagination is the Paphian shop,
Where feeble Happiness, like Vulcan, lame,
Bids foul Ideas, in their dark recess,
And hot as hell, (which kindled the black fires,)
With wanton art, those fatal arrows form
Which murder all thy time, health, wealth, and fame.
Wouldst thou receive them, other Thoughts there are,
On angel-wing, descending from above,
Which these, with art Divine, would counterwork,
And form celestial armour for thy peace.
(p. 175, ll. 994-1003)"
22829,"",Searching in WWO,"",2013-09-23 20:52:11 UTC,,7687,"","",2013-09-23 20:52:11 UTC,"""Then, Madam, reply'd Broscomin, sullenly, I shall waste no farther Time in attacking so impregnable a Fortress: this unconquerable Mind shall be left to its own liberty; and I must content myself with the means which more indulgent Heaven has given me of becoming Master of your more defenceless Part.""","Words are but vain, rejoin'd Tygrinonniple, and made a Signal to her Guards to seize on her; but Broscomin somewhat more mild, or affecting to be so, interposed, and taking her gently in his Arms, Madam, said he, you ought not to condemn what is the Effects of the most ardent Passion. --Too well I love to support a longer Delay; therefore, I beseech you, to resign willingly that Hand you see I have the power to force. Nor Force, nor Fraud, cry'd Yximilla, struggling, has power to move a Mind disdainful of your pretended Passion, as of your experienc'd Barbarity. Then, Madam, reply'd Broscomin, sullenly, I shall waste no farther Time in attacking so impregnable a Fortress: this unconquerable Mind shall be left to its own liberty; and I must content myself with the means which more indulgent Heaven has given me of becoming Master of your more defenceless Part. He said no more, but permitting the Guards to lay hold on her, she was forcibly carried to a Chariot, in which being placed between Tygrinonniple and Broscomin, and surrounded by a great number of armed Men, and preceded by loud Musick of various kinds, neither her Shrieks, nor any other Token of the Distraction she was in, was regarded as they passed along."
23341,"",Reading,"",2014-01-12 05:38:55 UTC,,7793,"","",2014-01-12 05:38:55 UTC,"""This way of application to gain a lady's heart, is taking her as we do towns and castles, by distressing the place, and letting none come near them without our pass.""","It is certain, Mr. Switch has hit upon the true source of this evil; and that it proceeds only from the force of custom that we contradict ourselves in half the particulars and occurrences of life. But such a tyranny in love, which the fair impose upon us, is a little too severe, that we must demonstrate our affection for them by no certain proof but hatred to one another, or come at them (only as one does to an estate) by survivorship. This way of application to gain a lady's heart, is taking her as we do towns and castles, by distressing the place, and letting none come near them without our pass. Were such a lover once to write the truth of his heart, and let her know his whole thoughts, he would appear indeed to have a passion for her; but it would hardly be called love. The billet-doux would run to this purpose:"
23863,"",Reading ,"",2014-05-26 20:23:16 UTC,,7163,"","",2014-05-26 20:23:27 UTC,"""This Helenus to great AEneas told, / Which I retain, e'er since in other Mould: / My Soul was cloath'd; and now rejoice to view / My Country Walls rebuilt, and Troy reviv'd anew, / Rais'd by the fall: Decreed by Loss to Gain; / Enslav'd but to be free, and conquer'd but to reign.""","For thus old Saws foretel, and Helenus
Anchises drooping Son enliven'd thus;
When Ilium now was in a sinking State;
And he was doubtful of his future Fate:
O Goddess born, with thy hard Fortune strive,
Troy never can be lost, and thou alive.
Thy Passage thou shalt free through Fire and Sword,
And Troy in Foreign Lands shall be restor'd.
In happier Fields a rising Town I see,
Greater than what e'er was, or is, or e'er shall be:
And Heav'n yet owes the: World a Race deriv'd from Thee.
Sages, and Chiefs of other Lineage born
The City shall extend, extended shall adorn:
But from Julus he must draw his Breath,
By whom thy Rome shall rule the conquer'd Earth:
Whom Heav'n will lend Mankind on Earth to reign,
And late require the precious Pledge again.
This Helenus to great AEneas told,
Which I retain, e'er since in other Mould:
My Soul was cloath'd; and now rejoice to view
My Country Walls rebuilt, and Troy reviv'd anew,
Rais'd by the fall: Decreed by Loss to Gain;
Enslav'd but to be free, and conquer'd but to reign.
(pp. 527-8; cf. pp. 831-2 in OUP)"