work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5462,Wandering,HDIS (Poetry),2003-11-10 00:00:00 UTC,"Say then, through ages by what fate confined
To different climes seem different souls assigned?
Here measured laws and philosophic ease
Fix and improve the polished arts of peace.
There Industry and Gain their vigils keep,
Command the winds and tame the unwilling deep.
Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail;
There languid pleasure sighs in every gale.
Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar
Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war;
And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway
Their arms, their kings, their gods were rolled away.
As oft have issued, host impelling host,
The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast.
The prostrate south to the destroyer yields
Her boasted titles and her golden fields:
With grim delight the brood of winter view
A brighter day and heavens of azure hue,
Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose,
And quaff the pendent vintage, as it grows.
Proud of the yoke and pliant to the rod,
Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod,
While European freedom still withstands
The encroaching tide, that drowns her lessening lands,
And sees far off with an indignant groan
Her native plains and empires once her own?
Can opener skies and suns of fiercer flame
O'erpower the fire that animates our frame,
As lamps, that shed at even a cheerful ray,
Fade and expire beneath the eye of day?
Need we the influence of the northern star
To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war?
And, where the face of nature laughs around,
Must sickening Virtue fly the tainted ground?
Unmanly thought! what seasons can control,
What fancied zone can circumscribe the Soul,
Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs,
By Reason's light on Resolution's wings,
Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes
O'er Libya's deserts and through Zembla's snows?
She bids each slumbering energy awake,
Another touch, another temper take,
Suspends the inferior laws that rule our clay:
The stubborn elements confess her sway;
Their little wants, their low desires, refine,
And raise the mortal to a height divine.
(ll. 38-83 p. 95-8)",,14609,"•I've included thrice: Wandering, Light, and Wings","""What fancied zone can circumscribe the Soul, / Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs, / By Reason's light on Resolution's wings, / Spite of her frail / companion, dauntless goes / O'er Libya's deserts and through Zembla's snows? ""","",2013-06-04 16:40:41 UTC,""
5088,"",Reading,2012-01-30 17:53:31 UTC,"Great wits jump: for the moment Dr. Slop cast his eyes upon his bag (which he had not done till the dispute with my uncle Toby about midwifery put him in mind of it)--the very same thought occurred.--'Tis God's mercy, quoth he, (to himself) that Mrs. Shandy has had so bad a time of it,--else she might have been brought to bed seven times told, before one half of these knots could have got untied.--But here, you must distinguish--the thought floated only in Dr. Slop's mind, without sail or ballast to it, as a simple proposition; millions of which, as your worship knows, are every day swiming quietly in the middle of the thin juice of a man's understanding, without being carried backwards or forwards, till some little gusts of passion or interest drive them to one side.
(III.ix, pp. 27-8)",,19550,"Great, disgusting, spermatick stream of consciousness","""But here, you must distinguish--the thought floated only in Dr. Slop's mind, without sail or ballast to it, as a simple proposition; millions of which, as your worship knows, are every day swiming quietly in the middle of the thin juice of a man's understanding, without being carried backwards or forwards, till some little gusts of passion or interest drive them to one side.""","",2012-01-30 17:53:31 UTC,"Volume III, Chapter 9"
7486,"",Reading in C-H ,2013-06-27 13:30:16 UTC,"There is in the human mind a strong propensity to make excursions; which may naturally be expected to exert itself most in those who have the greatest quickness and compass of imagination. If it be indulged without reserve, it will produce incoherent medleys, fantastical rhapsodies, or unmeaning reveries. Often, however, the bye-roads of association, as we may term them, lead to rich and unexpected regions, give occasion to noble sallies of imagination, and proclaim an uncommon force of genius, able to penetrate through unfrequented ways to lofty or beautiful conceptions. This is the character of Pindar's genius, the boldness of which more than compensates for its irregularity. The truest genius is in hazard of sometimes running into superfluities, and will find occasion to prune the luxuriance, and rectify the disorder of its first conceptions. But this faculty can never be reckoned perfect, till it has acquired a capacity of avoiding them in most cases. It must supply a large stock, and at the same time manage it with economy. While it produces all that is necessary, it must evite all that is superfluous.
(I.iii, pp. 53-4)",,21172,"","""There is in the human mind a strong propensity to make excursions; which may naturally be expected to exert itself most in those who have the greatest quickness and compass of imagination.""","",2013-06-27 13:30:16 UTC,""
7486,"",Reading in C-H Lion,2013-06-27 18:18:41 UTC,"Thus, while imagination is active in conceiving all the various combinations and arrangements of the ideas which it has collected, judgment must be as indesatigable in surveying them, and determining concerning their real force and consequences. It must remark in an instant those positions of them which are unfit for answering the purpose, and be able, without losing much time in scrutinizing them, to pitch upon those that are fit. Fancy throws out both the worthless earth and the rich ore; judgment, like a skilful refiner, distinguishes the one from the other, and purifies the gold contained in the latter, from the dross with which it is intermingled. The restless efforts of the most healthful imagination would be both useless and endless, if they were not subjected to the cognizance of reason. To imagine all the possible arrangements of a set of ideas, were an unmeaning play of thought, if they merely passed through the mind, like the images that are said to succeed one another in the brown study, without reason being able to arrest such of them as it approves. Were reason only slow in her determinations, in comparison with the quickness with which fancy conceives, like Una's dwarf, lagging behind her far away, even this would greatly impede the work of genius, retard its progress, or stop it altogether by constantly curbing the impetuosity of fancy. Or if its spirit were too hardy to be wholly broken, it would outrun its companion; it would dispose a man to take up with the first conception that occurred, rather than weary himself in attempts to procure better, when judgment were so dull as not to distinguish readily which deserves the preference.
(I.iv, pp. 88-9)",,21189,"","""Were reason only slow in her determinations, in comparison with the quickness with which fancy conceives, like Una's dwarf, lagging behind her far away, even this would greatly impede the work of genius, retard its progress, or stop it altogether by constantly curbing the impetuosity of fancy.""","",2013-06-27 18:18:41 UTC,""
5301,"",Searching in LION,2013-10-26 19:42:02 UTC,"Sweet pliability of man's spirit, than can at once surrender itself to illusions, which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary moments!----long--long since had ye number'd out my days, had I not trod so great a part of them upon this enchanted ground. When my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get off it, to some smooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rose-buds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it, come back strengthen'd and refresh'd-- When evils press sore upon me, and there is no retreat from them in this world, then I take a new course--I leave it--and as I have a clearer idea of the elysian fields than I have of heaven, I force myself, like Eneas, into them--I see him meet the pensive shade of his forsaken Dido--and wish to recognize it--I see the injured spirit wave her head, and turn off silent from the author of her miseries and dishonours--I lose the feelings for myself in hers--and in those affections which were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school.
(II, pp. 74-5)",,23063,"","""When my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get off it, to some smooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rose-buds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it, come back strengthen'd and refresh'd.""","",2013-10-26 19:42:02 UTC,""
5343,"",Reading,2013-10-28 02:40:16 UTC,"Such is the girl, love nestling in her eye,
In vain she strives, love gives her tongue the lye;
Melting like dripping at the Bedford fire,
She seeks the Park to quench the fierce desire:
Chooses the shadiest part, grows sick of light,
And every moment seems an age to night:
By passions torn, by prudence check'd she roves,
Now firm to yield, and now she flies the groves:
Resolv'd to speak, she stops, shame warms her cheek,
She won't, she will, she can, she cannot speak:
Amidst these conflicts Me---d---t appears,
The smoothest, greyest villain of his years;
With sugar'd speeches moves the doubtful part,
And conquer'd Kitty, sighs beneath the smart.
Passions, and snow balls each by motion swell,
And Kitty finds her little heart rebel;
Full of desires she sighs for this, and that,
Her heart for ev'ry man goes pit-a-pat;
Thus by degrees she steps upon the Town,
And what's so common pray, as Kitty Brown?
(ll. 151-170)",,23086,"","""Passions, and snow balls each by motion swell, / And Kitty finds her little heart rebel; / Full of desires she sighs for this, and that, / Her heart for ev'ry man goes pit-a-pat.""","",2013-10-28 02:40:16 UTC,""
7982,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2014-07-25 03:08:24 UTC,"THO' naturally pensive, yet I am fond of gay company, and take every opportunity of thus dismissing the mind from duty. From this motive I am often found in the centre of a crowd; and wherever pleasure is to be sold, am always a purchaser. In those places, without being remarked by any, I join in whatever goes forward, work my passions into a similitude of frivolous earnestness, shout as they shout, and condemn as they happen to disapprove. A mind thus sunk for a while below its natural standard, is qualified for stronger flights, as those first retire who would spring forward with greater vigour.
(I, pp. 233-234)",,24292,"","""A mind thus sunk for a while below its natural standard, is qualified for stronger flights, as those first retire who would spring forward with greater vigour""","",2014-07-25 03:08:24 UTC,LETTER LII. From the same
7984,"",Reading,2014-07-25 18:21:30 UTC,"Whoever thinks must see that man was made
To face the storm, not languish in the shade;
Action's his sphere, and,for that sphere design'd,
Eternal pleasures open on his mind.
For this, fair hope leads on the' impassion'd soul
Through life's wild labyrinths to her distant goal;
Paints in each dream, to fan the genial flame,
The pomp of riches, and the pride of fame,
Or fondly gives reflection's cooler eye
A glance, an image, of a future sky.
Yet, though kind Heaven points out the' unerring road
That leads through nature up to bliss and God;
Spite of that God, and all his voice divine
Speaks in the heart, or teaches from the shrine,
Man, feebly vain, and impotently wise,
Disdains the manna sent him from the skies;
Tasteless of all that virtue gives to please,
For thought too active, and too mad for ease,
From wish to wish in life's mad vortex toss'd,
For ever struggling, and for ever lost;
He scorns religion, though her seraphs call,
And lives in rapture, or not lives at all.
(pp. 154-155)",,24303,"","""Tasteless of all that virtue gives to please, / For thought too active, and too mad for ease, / From wish to wish in life's mad vortex toss'd, / For ever struggling, and for ever lost; / He scorns religion, though her seraphs call, / And lives in rapture, or not lives at all.""","",2014-07-25 18:21:30 UTC,""
5088,"",Reading. Text from ECCO-TCP.,2016-02-18 06:29:22 UTC,"If I was not morally sure that the reader must be out of all patience for my uncle Toby's character,--I would here previously have convinced him, that there is no instrument so fit to draw such a thing with, as that which I have pitch'd upon. A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho' I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind, and my opinion rather is, that there is something in it more of the manner of electrified bodies,--and that by means of the heated parts of the rider, which come immediately into contact with the back of the HOBBY-HORSE.--By long journies and much friction, it so happens that the body of the rider is at length fill'd as full of HOBBY-HORSICAL matter as it can hold;--so that if you are able to give but a clear description of the nature of the one, you may form a pretty exact notion of the genius and character of the other.
(I.xxiv, pp. 172-3)",,24818,Hobby Horses,"""A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho' I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind, and my opinion rather is, that there is something in it more of the manner of electrified bodies,--and that by means of the heated parts of the rider, which come immediately into contact with the back of the HOBBY-HORSE.--By long journies and much friction, it so happens that the body of the rider is at length fill'd as full of HOBBY-HORSICAL matter as it can hold;--so that if you are able to give but a clear description of the nature of the one, you may form a pretty exact notion of the genius and character of the other.""","",2016-02-18 14:01:39 UTC,"Vol. I, Chap. xxiv"
5088,"",Reading,2016-02-23 16:27:29 UTC,"It is curious to observe the triumph of slight incidents over the mind:--What incredible weight they have in forming and governing our opinions, both of men and things,--that trifles light as air, shall waft a belief into the soul, and plant it so immoveably within it,--that Euclid's demonstrations, could they be brought to batter it in breach, should not all have power to overthrow it.
(IV.xxvii, pp. 179-80; Norton, 226)",,24848,Is that planting a Plant metaphor? -- I think not. REVISIT.,"""It is curious to observe the triumph of slight incidents over the mind:--What incredible weight they have in forming and governing our opinions, both of men and things,--that trifles light as air, shall waft a belief into the soul, and plant it so immoveably within it,--that Euclid's demonstrations, could they be brought to batter it in breach, should not all have power to overthrow it.""","",2016-02-23 16:27:39 UTC,"Vol. IV, Chap. xxvii"