work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4963,"",Reading Johnson's and Bailey's dictionaries,2004-06-24 00:00:00 UTC,Her sweet idea wander'd through his thoughts.,,13370,"",A sweet idea (of a beloved) may wander through one's thoughts,"",2009-09-14 19:38:15 UTC,""
5063,"","Reading and searching in RPO",2009-09-14 19:38:45 UTC,"Nor have I Bacon's opinion only, but his assistance too, on my side. His mighty mind travelled round the intellectual world; and, with a more than eagle's eye, saw, and has pointed out blank spaces, or dark spots in it, on which the human mind never shone: Some of these have been enlightened since; some are benighted still.
Moreover, so boundless are the bold excursions of the human mind, that in the vast void beyond real existence, it can call forth shadowy beings, and unknown worlds, as numerous, as bright, and, perhaps, as lasting, as the stars; such quite-original beauties we may call Paradisaical,
Natos sine semine flores. OVID.
When such an ample area for renowned adventure in original attempts lies before us, shall we be as mere leaden pipes, conveying to the present age small streams of excellence from its grand reservoir in antiquity; and those too, perhaps, mudded in the pass? Originals shine, like comets; have no peer in their path; are rival'd by none, and the gaze of all: All other compositions (if they shine at all) shine in clusters; like the stars in the galaxy; where, like bad neighbours, all suffer from all; each particular being diminished, and almost lost in the throng.
(pp. 69-71)",,13580,The leaden pipes at the end are a fascinating figure.,"""His mighty mind travelled round the intellectual world; and, with a more than eagle's eye, saw, and has pointed out blank spaces, or dark spots in it, on which the human mind never shone.""",Animals,2014-11-17 20:02:14 UTC,""
5038,"",Reading,2005-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"To conclude; whatever progress may be made towards the discovery of truth in this matter, I do not repent the pains I have taken in it. The use of such enquiries may be very considerable. Whatever turns the soul inward upon itself, tends to concenter forces, and to fit it for greater and stronger flights of science. By looking into physical causes our minds are opened and enlarged; and in this pursuit whether we take or whether we lose our game, the chace is certainly of service. Cicero, true as he was to the Academic philosophy, and consequently led to reject the certainty of physical as of every other kind of knowledge, yet freely confesses its great importance to the human understanding: ""Est animorum ingeniorumque nostrorum naturale quoddam quasi pabulum consideratio contemplatioque naturae."" If we can direct the lights we derive from such exalted speculations, upon the humbler field of the imagination, whilst we investigate the springs and trace the course of our passions, we may not only communicate to the taste a sort of philosophical solidity, but we may reflect back on severer sciences some of the graces and elegancies of taste, without which the greatest proficiency in those sciences will always have the appearance of something illiberal.
(pp. 55-6)",2007-09-23,13642,•I've included twice: Field and Springs,"""If we can direct the lights we derive from such exalted speculations, upon the humbler field of the imagination, whilst we investigate the springs and trace the course of our passions, we may not only communicate to the taste a sort of philosophical solidity, but we may reflect back on severer sciences some of the graces and elegancies of taste, without which the greatest proficiency in those sciences will always have the appearance of something illiberal""",Beasts,2009-09-14 19:38:53 UTC,The Preface to the Second Edition
5038,"",Reading,2005-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"Besides the ideas, with their annexed pains and pleasures, which are presented by the sense; the mind of man possesses a sort of creative power of its own; either in represetnting at pleasure the images of things in the order and manner in which they were received by the senses, or in combining those images in a new manner, and according to a different order. This power is called Imagination; and to this belongs whatever is called wit, fancy, invention, and the like. But it must be observed, that this power of the imagination is incapable of producing any thing absolutely new; it can only vary the disposition of those ideas which it has received from the senses. Now the imagination is the most extensive province of pleasure and pain, as it is the region of our fears and our hopes, and of all our passions that are connected with them; and whatever is calculated to affect the imagination with these commanding ideas, by force of any original natural impression, must have the same power pretty equally over all men. For since the imagination is only the representative of the senses, it can only be pleased or displeased with the images from the same principle on which the sense is pleased or displeased with the realities; and consequently there must be just as close an agreement in the imaginations as in the senses of men. A little attention will convince us that this must of necessity be the case.
(p. 68-9)",2007-09-23,13644,•I've included twice: Province and Region,"""Now the imagination is the most extensive province of pleasure and pain, as it is the region of our fears and our hopes, and of all our passions that are connected with them; and whatever is calculated to affect the imagination with these commanding ideas, by force of any original natural impression, must have the same power pretty equally over all men.""","",2009-09-14 19:38:53 UTC,Introduction on Taste
5086,"",Searching in ECCO,2006-10-12 00:00:00 UTC,"SUCH was her external Form, and though her Mind might, with the utmost Propriety, be said to resemble a mere Tabula rasa, yet was it, at the same time, of so naturally delicate a Texture, that it would retain the smallest Impression made on it by the Hands of Wisdom. It is true, that the Want of Education, which her Mother's Poverty prevented her from bestowing, in a great Measure depressed those Seeds of Genius which were sown in her; yet, as the Spirit of a SHAKESPEAR would, under the most mountainous Oppression, have breathed forth some of its inextinguishable Fires, so did the native Genius of PEGGY WOFFINGTON display itself in her minutest Actions, and manifest a Brilliancy which all the studiest Efforts of laborious Industry might in vain attempt.
(p. 8)",,13682,•I've included twice: Seeds and Volcano,"""It is true, that the Want of Education, which her Mother's Poverty prevented her from bestowing, in a great Measure depressed those Seeds of Genius which were sown in her; yet, as the Spirit of a SHAKESPEAR would, under the most mountainous Oppression, have breathed forth some of its inextinguishable Fires, so did the native Genius of PEGGY WOFFINGTON display itself in her minutest Actions, and manifest a Brilliancy which all the studiest Efforts of laborious Industry might in vain attempt.""","",2009-09-14 19:38:58 UTC,""
5088,Wit and Judgment,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2004-11-17 00:00:00 UTC,"Indeed there is one thing to be considered, that in Nova Zembla, North Lapland, and in all those cold and dreary tracts of the globe, which lie more directly under the artick and antartick circles,--where the whole province of a man's concernments lies for near nine months together, within the narrow compass of his cave,----where the spirits are compressed almost to nothing,----and where the passions of a man, with every thing which belongs to them, are as frigid as the zone itself;--there the least quantity of judgment imaginable does the business,--and of wit,--there is a total and an absolute saving,--for as not one spark is wanted,--so not one spark is given. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! What a dismal thing would it have been to have governed a kingdom, to have fought a battle, or made a treaty, or run a match, or wrote a book, or got a child, or held a provincial chapter there, with so plentiful a lack of wit and judgment about us! for mercy's sake! let us think no more about it, but travel on as fast as we can southwards into Norway,----crossing overSwedeland, if you please, through the small triangular province of Angermania to the lake of Bothnia; coasting along it through east and west Bothnia, down toCarelia, and so on, through all those states and provinces which border upon the far side of the Gulf of Finland, and the north east of the Baltick, up to Petersbourg, and just stepping into Ingria;--then stretching over directly from thence through the north parts of the Russian empire--leaving Siberia a little upon the left hand till we get into the very heart ofRussian and Asiatick Tartary.
(pp. 92-4; Norton, 142-3)",2011-09-23,13708,"","""Indeed there is one thing to be considered, that in Nova Zembla, North Lapland, and in all those cold and dreary tracts of the globe, which lie more directly under the artick and antartick circles,--where the whole province of a man's concernments lies for near nine months together, within the narrow compass of his cave,----where the spirits are compressed almost to nothing,----and where the passions of a man, with every thing which belongs to them, are as frigid as the zone itself;--there the least quantity of judgment imaginable does the business,--and of wit,--there is a total and an absolute saving,--for as not one spark is wanted,--so not one spark is given.""","",2011-09-23 19:00:13 UTC,"Vol III, Chapter 20: The Author's Preface"
7253,"",Reading,2012-05-09 13:47:37 UTC,"There are likewise internal causes equally forcible. The language most likely to continue long without alteration, would be that of a nation raised a little, and but a little, above barbarity, secluded from strangers, and totally employed in procuring the conveniencies of life; either without books, or, like some of the Mahometan countries, with very few: men thus busied and unlearned, having only such words as common use requires, would perhaps long continue to express the same notions by the same signs. But no such constancy can be expected in a people polished by arts, and classed by subordination, where one part of the community is sustained and accommodated by the labour of the other. Those who have much leisure to think, will always be enlarging the stock of ideas, and every increase of knowledge, whether real or fancied, will produce new words, or combinations of words. When the mind is unchained from necessity, it will range after convenience; when it is left at large in the fields of speculation, it will shift opinions; as any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.
(p. 295 in Brady and Wimsatt)",,19761,"","""When the mind is unchained from necessity, it will range after convenience; when it is left at large in the fields of speculation, it will shift opinions; as any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.""",Fetters,2012-05-09 13:47:37 UTC,""
7743,"",ECCO,2013-10-28 19:08:04 UTC,"[...] Your Memory, and Understanding too
Will still acquire new Strength, by reading slow.
The Traveller, who o'er the Country flies,
Few rural Beauties, with Discernment, spies;
Objects, that pass so swift, confound the Mind,
And no distinct Impression leave behind.
Some Readers read too much, as Gluttons eat,
These Flatulence produce, and those Conceit;
If you, by reading much, would Knowledge gain,
Think, while you read, or you will read in vain;
You'll be no wiser than a Parrot taught
To speak, if you still read, without a Thought [...]
(p. 72)",,23103,"","""Your Memory, and Understanding too / Will still acquire new Strength, by reading slow. / The Traveller, who o'er the Country flies, / Few rural Beauties, with Discernment, spies; / Objects, that pass so swift, confound the Mind, / And no distinct Impression leave behind.""",Impressions,2013-10-28 19:08:04 UTC,""
5063,"",Reading,2014-03-04 03:40:02 UTC,"This is the difference between those two luminaries in literature, the well-accomplished scholar, and the divinely-inspired enthusiast; the first is, as the bright morning star; the second, as the rising sun. The writer who neglects those two rules above will never stand alone; he makes one of a group, and thinks in wretched unanimity with the throng; Incumbered with the notions of others, and impoverished by their abundance, he conceives not the least embryo of new thought; opens not the least vista thro' the gloom of ordinary writers, into the bright walks of rare imagination, and singular design; while the true genius is crossing all publick roads into fresh untrodden ground; he, up to the knees in antiquity, is treading the sacred footsteps of great examples, with the blind veneration of a bigot saluting the papal toe; comfortably hoping full absolution for the sins of his own understanding, from the powerful charm of touching his idol's infallibility.
(pp. 55-6)",,23445,"","""Incumbered with the notions of others, and impoverished by their abundance, he conceives not the least embryo of new thought; opens not the least vista thro' the gloom of ordinary writers, into the bright walks of rare imagination, and singular design.""","",2014-03-04 03:40:02 UTC,""
8270,"",Reading at The Yale Digital Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson. ,2018-04-17 16:24:53 UTC,"The incursions of troublesome thoughts are often violent and importunate; and it is not easy to a mind accustomed to their inroads to expel them immediately by putting better images into motion; but this enemy of quiet is above all others weakened by every defeat; the reflection which has been once overpowered and ejected, seldom returns with any formidable vehemence.
Employment is the great instrument of intellectual dominion. The mind cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one object but by passing to another. The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do, or who do nothing. We must be busy about good or evil, and he to whom the present offers nothing will often be looking backward on the past.",,25167,"","""The incursions of troublesome thoughts are often violent and importunate; and it is not easy to a mind accustomed to their inroads to expel them immediately by putting better images into motion; but this enemy of quiet is above all others weakened by every defeat; the reflection which has been once overpowered and ejected, seldom returns with any formidable vehemence.""","",2018-04-17 16:27:01 UTC,""