work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5088,Train of Ideas,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2005-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"Now, whether we observe it or no, continued my father, in every sound man's head, there is a regular succession of ideas of one sort or other, which follow each other in train just like--A train of artillery? said my uncle Toby.--A train of a fiddle stick!--quoth my father,-- which follow and succeed one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle.--I declare, quoth my uncle Toby, mine are like a smoak-jack. --Then, brother Toby, I have nothing more to say to you upon the subject, said my father.
(pp. 80-1; Norton, 139)",2008-10-07,13746,"","Ideas ""follow and succeed one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle.""",Optics,2011-09-23 19:49:07 UTC,"Vol. 3, Chapter 18"
5381,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""mirror"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-06-28 00:00:00 UTC,"Thus, with a Poet's power, the Sage's pen
Pourtray'd that nicer negligence of scene,
Which Taste approves. While he, delicious swain,
Who tun'd his oaten pipe by Mulla's stream,
Accordant touch'd the stops in Dorian mood:
What time he 'gan to paint the fairy vale,
Where stands the fane of Venus. Well I ween
That then, if ever, Colin, thy fond hand
Did steep its pencil in the well-fount clear
Of true simplicity; and ""call'd in Art
""Only to second Nature, and supply
""All that the Nymph forgot, or left forlorn.""
Yet what avail'd the song? or what avail'd
Ev'n thine, thou chief of Bards, whose mighty mind,
With inward light irradiate, mirror-like
Receiv'd, and to mankind with ray reflex
The sov'reign Planter's primal work display'd?
That work, where not nice Art in curious knots,
""But Nature boon pour'd forth on hill and dale
""Flowers worthy of Paradise; while all around
""Umbrageous grotts, and caves of cool recess,
""And murmuring waters down the slope dispers'd,
""Or held, by fringed banks, in crystal lakes,
""Compose a rural seat of various view.""
'Twas thus great Nature's herald blazon'd high
That fair original impress, which she bore
In state sublime; e'er miscreated Art,
Offspring of Sin and Shame, the banner seiz'd,
And with adulterate pageantry defil'd.
Yet vainly, Milton, did thy voice proclaim
These her primæval honours. Still she lay
Defac'd, deflower'd, full many a ruthless year:
Alike, when Charles, the abject tool of France,
Came back to smile his subjects into slaves;
Or Belgic William, with his warrior frown,
Coldly declar'd them free; in fetters still
The Goddess pin'd, by both alike opprest.
(Book I)",,14466,•I've included twice: Mirror and Light
,"What availed the songs of a ""mighty mind, / With inward light irradiate, mirror-like / Receiv'd, and to mankind with ray reflex / The sov'reign Planter's primal work display'd?""","",2013-08-22 19:42:12 UTC,Book the First
5441,Mirror and Lamp,"Reading Terry Castle's ""Phantasmagoria and the Metaphorics of Modern Reverie"" in The Female Thermometer: Eighteenth Century Culture and the Invention of the Uncanny (New York and Oxford: OUP, 1995), p. 156.",2009-09-14 19:41:13 UTC,"July 18. What is the whole world to our hearts without love? It is the optic machine of the Savoyards without light. As soon as the little lamp appears, the figures shine on the whitened wall; and if love only shews us shadows which pass away, yet still we are happy when, like children, we are transported with the splendid phantoms. I shall not see Charlotte to-day; company, which I could not avoid, hinders me. What do you think I have done? I sent the little boy who waits upon me, that I might at least see somebody that had been near her. With what impatience I waited for his return, and with what pleasure I saw him? I should certainly have taken him in my arms if I had not been ashamed.
(Vol. I, Letter XXI [July 18] pp. 99-100)
Wilhelm, was ist unserem Herzen die Welt ohne Liebe! Was eine Zauberlaterne ist ohne Licht! Kaum bringst du das Lämpchen hinein, so scheinen dir die buntesten Bilder an deine weiße Wand! Und wenn's nichts wäre als das, als vorübergehende Phantome, so macht's doch immer unser Glück, wenn wir wie frische Jungen davor stehen und uns über die Wundererscheinungen entzücken. Heute konnte ich nicht zu Lotten, eine unvermeidliche Gesellschaft hielt mich ab. Was war zu tun? Ich schickte meinen Diener hinaus, nur um einen Menschen um mich zu haben, der ihr heute nahe gekommen wäre. Mit welcher Ungeduld ich ihn erwartete, mit welcher Freude ich ihn wiedersah! Ich hätte ihn gern beim Kopfe genommen und geküßt, wenn ich mich nicht geschämt hätte.
(Am 18. Julius, p. 45 in Reclam)",2006-06-06,14556,•Reviewed 2003-12-12. I've included twice: Lantern and Lamp,""What is the whole world to our hearts without love? It is the optic machine of the Savoyards without light."" [More literal translation: ""Wilhelm, what would the world mean to our hearts without love! What is a magic lantern without its lamp!""]",Optics,2013-06-06 19:06:03 UTC,""
5686,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""mirror"" in HDIS (Poetry); found again in ECCO-TCP",2005-06-28 00:00:00 UTC,"Where'er that Parent of engaging thought,
Warm Sensibility, like light, has taught
The bright'ning mirror of the mind to shew
Nature's reflected forms in all their glow;
Where in full tides the fine affections roll,
And the warm heart invigorates the soul;
In that rich spot, where winds propitious blow,
Culture may teach poetic Fame to grow.
Refin'd Invention and harmonious Rhyme,
Are the slow gifts of Study and of Time;
But to the Bard whom all the Muses court,
His Sports are study, and his Studies sport.
E'en at this period, when all tongues declare
Poetic talents are a gift most rare,
Unnumber'd Spirits, in our generous isle,
Are ripening now beneath kind Nature's smile,
Whom happy care might lead to lasting fame,
And art ennoble with a Poet's name.",,15199,
•I've included twice: Mirror and Light
,"""Where'er that Parent of engaging thought, / Warm Sensibility, like light, has taught / The bright'ning mirror of the mind to shew / Nature's reflected forms in all their glow.""","",2013-08-16 00:07:56 UTC,""
6964,Mind's Eye,Reading,2011-06-23 04:17:33 UTC,"Ye pale Inhabitants of Night,
Before my intellectual Sight
In solemn Pomp ascend:
O tell how trifling now appears
The Train of idle Hopes and Fears
That varying Life attend.
Ye faithless Idols of our Sense,
Here own how vain your fond Pretence,
Ye empty Names of Joy!
Your transient Forms like Shadows pass,
Frail Offspring of the magic Glass,
Before the mental Eye.
The dazzling Colours, falsely bright,
Attract the gazing vulgar Sight
With superficial State:
Thro' Reason's clearer Optics view'd,
How stript of all it's Pomp, how rude
Appears the painted Cheat.
(pp. 80-1)",,18775,"","Melancholy's ""transient Forms like Shadows pass, / Frail Offspring of the magic Glass, / Before the mental Eye.""",Mirror,2014-07-15 16:04:26 UTC,""
7267,"",Reading,2012-06-28 18:21:50 UTC,"This double feeling is of various kinds and various degrees; some minds receiving a colour from the objects around them, like the effects of the sun beams playing thro' a prism; and others, like the cameleon, having no colours of their own, take just the colours of what chances to be nearest them. And it must be observed, that the greater degree a man is accustomed to assume of artificial feeling, the more probability is there that he has no character of his own on which we can depend, unless indeed he be born of an uncommon degree of firmness: hence it is that the French, who are celebrated as the politest people in Europe, and in conformity with the ideas which I have just now mentioned, may be considered as perpetual comedians, have the least original character, and have been censured as fickle and false: whereas the English, who have a plain bluntness of behaviour, are truly a nation of originals, and are universally allowed to be remarkably honest. But laying aside natural prejudice, and judging candidly, we must confess that the politeness of the French makes them much happier; because from the continual habit of working themselves into an agreeable frame—into complacency and self-satisfaction, they actually enjoy those blessings; and the falseness for which they are censured, is not tainted with malignity; for it is only volatility and changeableness.
(p. 470)",,19810,"","""This double feeling is of various kinds and various degrees; some minds receiving a colour from the objects around them, like the effects of the sun beams playing thro' a prism; and others, like the cameleon, having no colours of their own, take just the colours of what chances to be nearest them.""",Beasts and Optics,2012-06-28 18:21:50 UTC,Essay II
5681,"",Reading,2012-08-13 21:27:04 UTC,"If heaven has into being deign'd to call
Thy light, O LIBERTY! to shine on all;
Bright intellectual Sun! why does thy ray
To earth distribute only partial day?
Since no resisting cause from spirit flows
Thy penetrating essence to opose;
No obstacles by Nature's hand imprest,
Thy subtle and ethereal beams arrest;
Nor motion's laws can speed thy active course,
Nor strong repulsion's pow'rs obstruct thy force;
Since there is no convexity in MIND,
Why are thy genial beams to parts confin'd?
While the chill North with thy bright ray is blest,
Why should fell darkness half the South invest?
Was it decreed, fair Freedom! at thy birth,
That thou shou'd'st ne'er irradiate all the earth?
While Britain basks in thy full blaze of light,
Why lies sad Afric quench'd in total night?
(ll. 1-18, p. 101 in Wood)",,19908,"","""Since there is no convexity in MIND, / Why are thy genial beams to parts confined?""",Optics,2012-08-13 21:27:04 UTC,""
5452,"","Searching ""heart"" in PGDP",2013-06-21 19:48:27 UTC,"MY DEAR FRIEND: 'Avoir du monde' is, in my opinion, a very just and happy expression for having address, manners, and for knowing how to behave properly in all companies; and it implies very truly that a man who hath not those accomplishments is not of the world. Without them, the best parts are inefficient, civility is absurd, and freedom offensive. A learned parson, rusting in his cell, at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, he knows nothing of man, for he hath not lived with him; and is ignorant of all the various modes, habits, prejudices, and tastes, that always influence and often determine him. He views man as he does colors in Sir Isaac Newton's prism, where only the capital ones are seen; but an experienced dyer knows all their various shades and gradations, together with the result of their several mixtures. Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do form different lights. The man 'qui a du monde' knows all this from his own experience and observation: the conceited, cloistered philosopher knows nothing of it from his own theory; his practice is absurd and improper, and he acts as awkwardly as a man would dance, who had never seen others dance, nor learned of a dancing-master; but who had only studied the notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes. Observe and imitate, then, the address, the arts, and the manners of those 'qui ont du monde': see by what methods they first make, and afterward improve impressions in their favor. Those impressions are much oftener owing to little causes than to intrinsic merit; which is less volatile, and hath not so sudden an effect. Strong minds have undoubtedly an ascendant over weak ones, as Galigai Marachale d'Ancre very justly observed, when, to the disgrace and reproach of those times, she was executed for having governed Mary of Medicis by the arts of witchcraft and magic. But then ascendant is to be gained by degrees, and by those arts only which experience and the knowledge of the world teaches; for few are mean enough to be bullied, though most are weak enough to be bubbled. I have often seen people of superior, governed by people of much inferior parts, without knowing or even suspecting that they were so governed. This can only happen when those people of inferior parts have more worldly dexterity and experience, than those they govern. They see the weak and unguarded part, and apply to it they take it, and all the rest follows. Would you gain either men or women, and every man of sense desires to gain both, 'il faut du monde'. You have had more opportunities than ever any man had, at your age, of acquiring 'ce monde'. You have been in the best companies of most countries, at an age when others have hardly been in any company at all. You are master of all those languages, which John Trott seldom speaks at all, and never well; consequently you need be a stranger nowhere. This is the way, and the only way, of having 'du monde', but if you have it not, and have still any coarse rusticity about you, may not one apply to you the 'rusticus expectat' of Horace?
(III.ccxlv, LONDON, April 30, O. S. 1752.)",,21120,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY,"""A learned parson, rusting in his cell, at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, he knows nothing of man, for he hath not lived with him; and is ignorant of all the various modes, habits, prejudices, and tastes, that always influence and often determine him. He views man as he does colors in Sir Isaac Newton's prism, where only the capital ones are seen; but an experienced dyer knows all their various shades and gradations, together with the result of their several mixtures. Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do form different lights.""",Optics,2013-06-21 19:48:27 UTC,""
5657,"",Searching in C-H Lion,2013-06-26 14:08:32 UTC,"Dr Johnson had for many years given me hopes that we should go together, and visit the Hebrides. Martin's Account of those islands had impressed us with a notion that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to see; and, to find simplicity and wildness, and all the circumstances of remote time or place, so near to our native great island, was an object within the reach of reasonable curiosity. Dr Johnson has said in his Journey, 'that he scarcely remembered how the wish to visit the Hebrides was excited'; but he told me, in summer, 1763, that his father put Martin's Account into his hands when he was very young, and that he was much pleased with it. We reckoned there would be some inconveniencies and hardships, and perhaps a little danger; but these we were persuaded were magnified in the imagination of every body. When I was at Ferney, in 1764, I mentioned our design to Voltaire. He looked at me, as if I had talked of going to the North Pole, and said, 'You do not insist on my accompanying you?' 'No, sir.' 'Then I am very willing you should go.' I was not afraid that our curious expedition would be prevented by such apprehensions; but I doubted that it would not be possible to prevail on Dr Johnson to relinquish, for some time, the felicity of a London life, which, to a man who can enjoy it with full intellectual relish, is apt to make existence in any narrower sphere seem insipid or irksome. I doubted that he would not be willing to come down from his elevated state of philosophical dignity; from a superiority of wisdom among the wise, and of learning among the learned; and from flashing his wit upon minds bright enough to reflect it.
(p. 161)",,21128,"","""I doubted that he would not be willing to come down from his elevated state of philosophical dignity; from a superiority of wisdom among the wise, and of learning among the learned; and from flashing his wit upon minds bright enough to reflect it.""","",2013-06-26 14:08:32 UTC,""
5216,"",Reading,2014-08-28 21:03:16 UTC,"Happy the man, to whom a well-spread board
An ample Independence can afford,
Leisure to study, quiet, peace, and ease,
Born rather to be pleas'd, than others please;
A little sov'reign, though without a crown,
Courted his smile, nor dreaded less his frown!
Spring opens all her treasures to his view,
To be admir'd with more than common goo.
Labour and Want (unhospitable twain)
Chill not the current in Life's salient vein;
Nor damp the spirits, else of sprightly cast,
Nor check the nobler passions of the breast;
Nor blunt the fine Sensation's tender edge,
Which man's chief pride philosophers allege.
Thus some fair shoot, in spreading foliage gay,
Drinks youth and vigour from the golden day,
Because no worm gnaws at its root below,
Colds nip above, or forky lightnings glow.
A taste, improv'd by Education, finds
Pleasures where none appear to ruder minds;
Scenes, where the croud but few attractions see,
Affect it in an exquisite degree:
As telescopes, the finer ground, convey
More striking beauties by the visual ray;
Or magnets, as prepar'd the more exact,
Objects around more forcibly attract.
(pp. 92-93, ll. 139-264)",,24415,"","""A taste, improv'd by Education, finds / Pleasures where none appear to ruder minds; / Scenes, where the croud but few attractions see, / Affect it in an exquisite degree: / As telescopes, the finer ground, convey / More striking beauties by the visual ray; / Or magnets, as prepar'd the more exact, / Objects around more forcibly attract.""","",2014-08-28 21:03:16 UTC,""