work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4610,"",Searching in Past Masters,2003-09-18 00:00:00 UTC,"I answer, that after the first and second decision, as the action of the mind becomes forced and unnatural, and the ideas faint and obscure, though the principles of judgment, and the balancing of opposite causes be the same as at the very beginning, yet their influence on the imagination, and the vigour they add to, or diminish from, the thought, is by no means equal. Where the mind reaches not its objects with easiness and facility, the same principles have not the same effect as in a more natural conception of the ideas; nor does the imagination feel a sensation, which holds any proportion with that which arises from its common judgments and opinions. The attention is on the stretch; the posture of the mind is uneasy; and the spirits being diverted from their natural course, are not governed in their movements by the same laws, at least not to the same degree, as when they flow in their usual channel.
(I.iv.1, p. 124 in Oxford ed.) ",2010-09-26,12134,•spirits--as in previous Hume citation,"""The attention is on the stretch; the posture of the mind is uneasy; and the spirits being diverted from their natural course, are not governed in their movements by the same laws, at least not to the same degree, as when they flow in their usual channel.""","",2017-04-04 15:28:58 UTC,I.iv.1
7486,"",Reading in C-H Lion,2013-06-27 13:32:43 UTC,"Genius implies likewise activity of imagination. Whenever a fine imagination possesses healthful vigour, it will be continually starting hints, and pouring in conceptions upon the mind. As soon as any of them appears, fancy, with the utmost alertness, places them in every light, and enables us to pursue them through all their consequences, that we may be able to determine, whether they will promote the design which we have in eye. This activity of imagination, by which it darts with the quickness of lightning, through all possible views of the ideas which are presented, arises from the same perfection of the associating principles, which produces the other qualities of genius. These principles are so vigorous, that they will not allow the mind to be unemployed for a moment, and at the same time constantly suggest the design of the work, as the point to which all this employment tends. A false agility of imagination produces mere useless musing, or endless reveries, and hurries a man over large fields, without any settled aim: but true genius pursues a fixt direction, and employs its activity in continually starting such conceptions as not only arise from the present idea, but also terminate in the general subject: and though a thousand arrangements of the conceptions which it starts, should fail of answering the intention, it is indefatigable in trying new arrangements, till it can happily accomplish one that answers it. Whenever an image or a sentiment occurs to the poet or the orator, imagination sets it in every possible light, enables him to conceive its genuine effect, and thus puts it in his power to judge, whether it ought to be rejected or retained. A philosopher no sooner thinks of an experiment or an argument, than imagination, by representing it in every attitude, enables him to determine, what will be its force, and whether it will be to his purpose. In this manner the restless activity of imagination quickly constructs a sort of model by which we may form some idea of the work, before we proceed to execute it.
(I.iii, pp. 57-9)",,21174,"","""Genius implies likewise activity of imagination. Whenever a fine imagination possesses healthful vigour, it will be continually starting hints, and pouring in conceptions upon the mind.","",2013-06-27 13:32:43 UTC,""
7508,"",Reading in Google Books,2013-07-08 17:08:15 UTC,"I was mightily pleased to perceive by your quotation from Voiture, that you had track'd me so far as France. You see 'tis with weak heads as with weak stomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read floats upon the surface of their mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating. This, I think however, can't be said of the Love-verses I last troubled you with, where all (I am afraid) is so puerile and so like the author, that no body will suspect any thing to be borrowed. Yet you, (like a Friend entertaining a better opinion of 'em) it seems search'd in Waller, but search'd in vain. Your judgment of 'em is (I think) very right.--
(Letters to and from Mr. Cromwell, Oct 12, 1710, p. 66)",,21513,"","""You see 'tis with weak heads as with weak stomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read floats upon the surface of their mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating.""","",2018-06-18 14:57:45 UTC,Letter XXXIII
7520,"",Reading; text from C-H Lion,2013-07-09 16:47:32 UTC,"It was heretofore the Wisdom of some wise Nations, to let People be Fools as much as they pleas'd, and never to punish seriously what deserv'd only to be laugh'd at, and was after all best cur'd by that innocent Remedy. There are certain Humours in Mankind, which of necessity must have vent. The Human Mind and Body are both of 'em naturally subject to Commotions: and as there are strange Ferments in the Blood, which in many Bodys occasion an extraordinary discharge; so in Reason too, there are heterogeneous Particles which must be thrown off by Fermentation. Shou'd Physicians endeavour absolutely to allay those Ferments of the Body, and strike in the Humours which discover themselves in such Eruptions, they might, instead of making a Cure, bid fair perhaps to raise a Plague, and turn a Spring-Ague or an Autumn-Surfeit into an epidemical malignant Fever. They are certainly as ill Physicians in the Body-Politick, who wou'd needs be tampering with these mental Eruptions; and under the specious pretence of healing this Itch of Superstition, and saving Souls from the Contagion of Enthusiasm, shou'd set all Nature in an uproar, and turn a few innocent Carbuncles into an Inflammation and mortal Gangrene.
(pp. 13-14; p. 9 in Klein)",,21574,"","""The Human Mind and Body are both of 'em naturally subject to Commotions: and as there are strange Ferments in the Blood, which in many Bodys occasion an extraordinary discharge; so in Reason too, there are heterogeneous Particles which must be thrown off by Fermentation.""","",2013-07-09 17:16:16 UTC,Section 2
7593,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2013-08-16 17:51:20 UTC,"The Soul of the Murther'd Person seeks no Revenge; all that Part is swallowed up in the Wonders of the eternal State, and Vengeance entirely resign'd to him to whom it belongs; but the Soul of the Murtherer is like the Ocean in a Tempest, he is in continual Motion, restless and raging; and the Guilt of the Fact, like the Winds to the Sea, lies on his Mind as a constant Pressure, and adds to that, (still like the Seas) 'tis hurry'd about by its own Weight, rolling to and again, Motion encreasing Motion, 'till it becomes a meer Mass of Horrour and Confusion.
(p. 104)",,22211,"","""The Soul of the Murther'd Person seeks no Revenge; all that Part is swallowed up in the Wonders of the eternal State, and Vengeance entirely resign'd to him to whom it belongs; but the Soul of the Murtherer is like the Ocean in a Tempest, he is in continual Motion, restless and raging; and the Guilt of the Fact, like the Winds to the Sea, lies on his Mind as a constant Pressure, and adds to that, (still like the Seas) 'tis hurry'd about by its own Weight, rolling to and again, Motion encreasing Motion, 'till it becomes a meer Mass of Horrour and Confusion.""","",2013-08-16 17:51:20 UTC,Chapter VII
7686,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2013-09-22 20:42:34 UTC,"And as our Words must be the Product of our Judgment, so they must be temperate and decent, mixed with Curtesie and Civility; for he that hath calmed his Passions, hath nothing to betray them to rash and rude Language, which is a Foam cast up only by the Billows of a turbulent Mind, and can never be the Issues of a serene composed Temper; neither does any thing Charm us more than gracious Language, Quae ne illos quidem quos damnat offendit; a pregnant Example of which was seen in the last Age, at the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in the Year 1642. where, amongst others that were appointed by the House of Commons to Manage their Impeachment against him, there was one eminent Lawyer, who urged very smartly against his Lordship, but yet with great Respect and Civility of Language; And when the Earl came to Reply, as he did to every one, he said he had been very roughly handled by most of the Pleaders; but that he was very much beholding to one civil Gentleman amongst them, (naming the former Person) who, tho' he had touched him nearer the Quick than any other, yet he was obliged to return him Thanks, because he had cut his Throat with a clean Knife: Thus we see good Words are afforded at the same Price as ill, and are not only cheap, but prevalent upon all Occasions.
(pp. 23-24)",,22812,"","""And as our Words must be the Product of our Judgment, so they must be temperate and decent, mixed with Curtesie and Civility; for he that hath calmed his Passions, hath nothing to betray them to rash and rude Language, which is a Foam cast up only by the Billows of a turbulent Mind, and can never be the Issues of a serene composed Temper.""","",2013-09-22 20:42:34 UTC,Essay I
5583,"",Searching ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 19:23:24 UTC,"I WILL not go so far as to say that the improvement of taste and of virtue is the same; or that they may always be expected to coexist in an equal degree. More powerful correctives than taste can apply, are necessary for reforming the corrupt propensities which too frequently prevail among mankind. Elegant speculations are sometimes found to float on the surface of the mind, while bad passions possess the interior regions of the heart. At the same time this cannot but be admitted, that the exercise of taste is, in its native tendency, moral and purifying. From reading the most admired productions of genius, whether in poetry or prose, almost every one rises with some good impressions left on his mind; and though these may not always be durable, they are at least to be ranked among the means of disposing the heart to virtue. One thing is certain, and I shall hereafter have occasion to illustrate it more fully, that without possessing the virtuous affections in a strong degree, no man can attain eminence in the sublime parts of eloquence. He must feel what a good man feels, if he expects greatly to move or to interest mankind. They are the ardent sentiments of honour, virtue, magnanimity, and publick spirit, that only can kindle that fire of genius, and call up into the mind those high ideas, which attract the admiration of ages; and if this spirit be necessary to produce the most distinguished efforts of eloquence, it must be necessary also to our relishing them with proper taste and feeling.
(Vol. I, Lecture I, pp. 15-16)",,23258,"","""Elegant speculations are sometimes found to float on the surface of the mind, while bad passions possess the interior regions of the heart.""","",2013-11-18 19:23:24 UTC,""
7902,"","Searching in Project Gutenberg (PGDP) e-text. Confirmed in Bond.",2014-06-05 21:11:59 UTC,"Longinus has observed, that there may be a Loftiness in Sentiments, where there is no Passion, and brings Instances out of ancient Authors to support this his Opinion. The Pathetick, as that great Critick observes, may animate and inflame the Sublime, but is not essential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that those who excel most in stirring up the Passions, very often want the Talent of writing in the great and sublime manner, and so on the contrary. Milton has shewn himself a Master in both these ways of Writing. The Seventh Book, which we are now entring upon, is an Instance of that Sublime which is not mixed and worked up with Passion. The Author appears in a kind of composed and sedate Majesty; and tho' the Sentiments do not give so great an Emotion as those in the former Book, they abound with as magnificent Ideas. The Sixth Book, like a troubled Ocean, represents Greatness in Confusion; the seventh Affects the Imagination like the Ocean in a Calm, and fills the Mind of the Reader, without producing in it any thing like Tumult or Agitation.
(Cf. III, pp. 254-5 in Bond ed.)",,23884,"","""The Sixth Book, like a troubled Ocean, represents Greatness in Confusion; the seventh Affects the Imagination like the Ocean in a Calm, and fills the Mind of the Reader, without producing in it any thing like Tumult or Agitation.""","",2014-06-05 21:11:59 UTC,""
4610,"",Reading,2017-04-04 14:58:11 UTC,"THIS mixture of truth and falshood in the fables of tragic poets not only serves our present purpose, by shewing, that the imagination can be satisfy'd without any absolute belief or assurance; but may in another view be regarded as a very strong confirmation of this system. 'Tis evident, that poets make use of this artifice of borrowing the names of their persons, and the chief events of their poems, from history, in order to procure a more easy reception for the whole, and cause it to make a deeper impression on the fancy and affections. The several incidents of the piece acquire a kind of relation by being united into one poem or representation; and if any of these incidents be an object of belief, it bestows a force and vivacity on the others, which are related to it. The vividness of the first conception diffuses itself along the relations, and is convey'd, as by so many pipes or canals, to every idea that has any communication with the primary one. This, indeed, can never amount to a perfect assurrance; and that because the union among the ideas is, in a manner, accidental: But still it approaches so near, in its influence, as may convince us, that they are deriv'd from the same origin. Belief must please the imagination by means of the force and vivacity which attends it; since every idea, which has force and vivacity, is found to be agreeable to that faculty.
(I.iii.10, pp. 216-7; p. 83-4 in Oxford ed.)",,25069,"","""The vividness of the first conception diffuses itself along the relations, and is convey'd, as by so many pipes or canals, to every idea that has any communication with the primary one.""","",2017-04-04 14:58:11 UTC,I.iii.10
8354,"",Reading,2022-04-26 21:26:45 UTC,"Hereunto adde thoughtes, and words: if one speake and thinke much of beautie, vaine attire, glory, honour, reputation; if he feele in his heart, that often he desireth to be praised, or to insinuate his owne praise, it is most manifest, that the Passion of Pride pricketh him; and so I meane of all other Affections, because the minde doth thinke, and the tongue will speake according to the Passions of the heart: for, as the Ratte running behinde a paynted cloth, betrayeth her selfe; even so, a Passion lurking in the heart, by thoughts and speech discovereth it selfe, according to the common Proverbe, [end page 78] ex abundantia cordis os loquitur, from the aboundance of heart, the tongue speaketh: for as a River abounding with water, must make an inundation, and runne over the bankes; even so, when the heart is overflowen with affections, it must find some passage by the mouth, minde, or actions. And for this cause, I have divers times heard some persons very passionate affirme, that they thought their hearts would have broken, if they had not vented them in some sort, either with spitefull words, or revenging deeds: and that they could do no otherwise than their Passions inforced them.
(pp. 78-9)",,25306,"","""For, as the Ratte running behinde a paynted cloth, betrayeth her selfe; even so, a Passion lurking in the heart, by thoughts and speech discovereth it selfe, according to the common Proverbe, ex abundantia cordis os loquitur, from the aboundance of heart, the tongue speaketh: for as a River abounding with water, must make an inundation, and runne over the bankes; even so, when the heart is overflowen with affections, it must find some passage by the mouth, minde, or actions.""","",2022-04-26 21:26:45 UTC,""