work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4200,Inner and Outer,"",2004-11-08 00:00:00 UTC,"This Contradiction in the Frame of Man is the Reason that the Theory of Virtue is so well understood, and the Practice of it so rarely to be met with. If you ask me where to look for those beautiful shining Qualities of Prime Ministers, and the great Favourites of Princes that are so finely painted in Dedications, Addresses, Epitaphs, Funeral Sermons and Inscriptions, I answer There, and no where else. Where would you look for the Excellency of a Statue, but in that Part which you see of it? 'Tis the Polish'd Outside only that has the Skill and Labour of the Sculptor to boast of; what's out of sight is untouch'd. Would you break the Head or cut open the Breast to look for the Brains or the Heart, you'd only shew your Ignorance, and destroy the Workmanship. This has often made me compare the Virtues of great Men to your large China Jars: they make a fine Shew, and are Ornamental even to a Chimney; one would by the Bulk they appear in, and the Value that is set upon 'em, think they might be very useful, but look into a thousand of them, and you'll find nothing in them but Dust and Cobwebs.
(168)",2011-11-24,10899,"","""This has often made me compare the Virtues of great Men to your large China Jars: they make a fine Shew, and are Ornamental even to a Chimney; one would by the Bulk they appear in, and the Value that is set upon 'em, think they might be very useful, but look into a thousand of them, and you'll find nothing in them but Dust and Cobwebs.""","",2011-11-24 19:21:40 UTC,Remark O.
5229,"",Reading,2005-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"THEO.
The mind is capable not merely of knowing them, but also of finding them within itself. If all it had was the mere capacity to receive those items of knowledge--a passive power to do so, as indeterminate as the power of wax to receive shapes or of a blank page to receive words--it would not be the source of necessary truths, as I have just shown that it is. For it cannot be denied that the senses are inadequate to show their necessity, and that therefore the mind has a disposition (as much active as passive) to draw them from its own depths; thoughthe senses are necessary to give the mind the opportunity and the attention for this, and to direct it towards certain necessary truths rather than others. So you see, sir, that these people who hold a different view, able though they are, have apparently failed to think through the implications of the distinction between necessary or eternal truths and truths of experience. I said this before, and our entire debate confirms it. The fundamental proof of necessary truths comes from the understanding alone, and other truths come from experience fo from observations of the senses. Our mind is capable of knowing truths of both sorts, but it is the source of the former; and however often one experienced instances of universal truth, one could never know inductively that it would always hold unless one knew through reason that it was necessary.
(pp. 79-80)",,14081,"•I.i.5. Whether there are Innate Principles
I've included twice: Wax and Blank Page","""If all [the mind] had was the mere capacity to receive those items of knowledge--a passive power to do so, as indeterminate as the power of wax to receive shapes or of a blank page to receive words--it would not be the source of necessary truths""",Impression,2013-10-13 19:00:07 UTC,""
5775,Reverie,Reading,2009-09-14 19:43:32 UTC,"[...] The lively heated imagination likewise, to apply the comparison, draws the picture of love, as it draws every other picture, with those glowing colours, which the daring hand will steal from the rainbow, that is directed by a mind, condemned in a world like this, to prove its noble origin by panting after unattainable perfection, ever pursuing what it acknowledges to be a fleeting dream. An imagination of this vigorous cast can give existence to insubstantial forms, and stability to shadowy reveries which the mind naturally falls into when the realities are found vapid. It can then depict love with celestial charms, and dote on the grand ideal object--it can imagine a degree of mutual affection that shall refine the soul, and not expire when it has served as a ""scale to heavenly;"" and, like devotion, make it absorb every meaner affection and desire.
(p. 70)",2012-01-23,15395,"Change Painting category to the ""visual arts"" and use subcategory to refine categorization. ","""The lively heated imagination likewise, to apply the comparison, draws the picture of love, as it draws every other picture, with those glowing colours, which the daring hand will steal from the rainbow, that is directed by a mind, condemned in a world like this, to prove its noble origin by panting after unattainable perfection, ever pursuing what it acknowledges to be a fleeting dream.""","",2012-01-23 17:02:05 UTC,Chapter IV
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 18:13:28 UTC,"5. For the Soul having an Innate Cognoscitive Power Universally, (which is nothing else but a Power of raising Objective Ideas within it self, and Intelligible Reasons of any thing) it must needs be granted that it hath a Potential Omniformity in it. Which is not only asserted by the Platonists, that the Soul is all things Intellectually, but also by Aristotle himself That the Soul is in a manner All things. The Mind being a kind of Notional or Representative World, as it were a Diaphanous and Crystalline Sphære, In which the Ideas and Images of all things existing in the Real Universe may be reflected or represented. For as the Mind of God, which is the Archetypal Intellect, is that whereby he always actually comprehends himself, and his own Fecundity, or the Extent of his own Infinite Goodness and Power; that is, the Possibility of all things; So all Created Intellects being being certain Ectypal Models, or Derivative Compendiums of the same; although they have not the Actual Ideas of all things, much less are the Images or Sculptures of all the Several Species of existent Things fixed and engraven in a dead manner upon them; yet they have them all Virtually and Potentially comprehended in that one Cognoscitive Power of the Soul, which is a Potential Omniformity, whereby it is enabled as Occasion serves and Outward Objects invite, gradually and successively to unfold and display it self in a Vital manner, by framing Intelligible Ideas or Conceptions within it self of whatsoever hath any Entity or Cogitability. As the Spermatick or Plastick Power doth Virtually contain within it self, the Forms of all the Several Organical Parts of Animals, and displays them gradually and Successively, framing an Eye-here and an Ear there.
(IV.i.5, pp. 134-5)",,19485,"","""For as the Mind of God, which is the Archetypal Intellect, is that whereby he always actually comprehends himself, and his own Fecundity, or the Extent of his own Infinite Goodness and Power; that is, the Possibility of all things; So all Created Intellects being being certain Ectypal Models, or Derivative Compendiums of the same; although they have not the Actual Ideas of all things, much less are the Images or Sculptures of all the Several Species of existent Things fixed and engraven in a dead manner upon them; yet they have them all Virtually and Potentially comprehended in that one Cognoscitive Power of the Soul, which is a Potential Omniformity, whereby it is enabled as Occasion serves and Outward Objects invite, gradually and successively to unfold and display it self in a Vital manner, by framing Intelligible Ideas or Conceptions within it self of whatsoever hath any Entity or Cogitability.""",Impressions and Writing,2012-01-22 18:13:28 UTC,"Book IV, Chapter i"
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 18:45:25 UTC,"That there are some Ideas of the Mind which were not stamped or imprinted upon it from the Sensible Objects without, and therefore must needs arise from the Innate Vigour and Activity of the Mind it self, is evident, in that there are, First, Ideas of such things as neither are Affections of Bodies, nor could be imprinted or conveyed by any Local Motions, nor can be pictured at all by the Fancy in any sensible Colours; such as are the Ideas of Wisdom, Folly, Prudence, Imprudence, Knowledge, Ignorance, Verity, Falsity, Vertue, Vice, Honesty, Dishonesty, Justice, Injustice, Volition, Cogitation, nay, of Sense it self, which is a Species of Cogitation, and which is not perceptible by any Sense; and many other such like Notions as include something of Cogitation in them, or refer to Cogitative Beings only; which Ideas must needs spring from the Active Power and Innate Fecundity of the Mind it self, Because the Corporeal Objects of Sense can imprint no such things upon it. Secondly, in that there are many Relative Notions and Ideas, attributed as well to Corporeal as Incorporeal things that proceed wholly from the Activity of the Mind Comparing one thing with another. Such as are Cause, Effect, Means, End, Order, Proportion, Similitude, Dissimilitude, Equality, Inequality, Aptitude, Inaptitude, Symmetry, Asymmetry, Whole and Part, Genus and Species, and the like.
(IV.ii.1, pp. 148-9)",,19493,"","""That there are some Ideas of the Mind which were not stamped or imprinted upon it from the Sensible Objects without, and therefore must needs arise from the Innate Vigour and Activity of the Mind it self, is evident, in that there are, First, Ideas of such things as neither are Affections of Bodies, nor could be imprinted or conveyed by any Local Motions, nor can be pictured at all by the Fancy in any sensible Colours; such as are the Ideas of Wisdom, Folly, Prudence, Imprudence, Knowledge, Ignorance, Verity, Falsity, Vertue, Vice, Honesty, Dishonesty, Justice, Injustice, Volition, Cogitation, nay, of Sense it self, which is a Species of Cogitation, and which is not perceptible by any Sense; and many other such like Notions as include something of Cogitation in them, or refer to Cogitative Beings only; which Ideas must needs spring from the Active Power and Innate Fecundity of the Mind it self, Because the Corporeal Objects of Sense can imprint no such things upon it.""",Impressions,2012-01-22 18:45:35 UTC,"Book IV, Chapter ii"
5642,"",Reading,2012-03-01 17:26:53 UTC,"There are other opinions that appear to be universal, from what is common in the structure of all languages, ancient and modern, polished and barbarous. Language is the express image and picture of human thoughts; and, from the picture, we may often draw very certain conclusions with regard to the original. We find in all languages the same parts of speech, nouns substantive and adjective, verbs active and passive, varied according to the tenses of past, present, and future; we find adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. There are general rules of syntax common to all languages. This uniformity in the structure of language, shows a certain degree of uniformity in those notions upon which the structure of language is grounded.
(I.ii.7, p. 44)",,19614,"","""Language is the express image and picture of human thoughts; and, from the picture, we may often draw very certain conclusions with regard to the original.""","",2012-03-01 17:26:53 UTC,Chapter 2. Principles Taken for Granted
4702,"","Searching and Reading in Google Books
",2014-02-05 22:06:33 UTC,"II. ACCUSTOM yourself to clear and distinct Ideas in every thing you think of. Be not satisfied with obscure and confused Conceptions of Things, especially where clearer may be obtained: For one obscure or confused Idea, especially if it be of great Importance in the Question, intermingled with many clear ones, and placed in its Variety of Aspects towards them, will be in Danger of spreading Confusion over the whole Scene of Ideas, and thus may have an unhappy Influence to overwhelm the Understanding with Darkness, and pervert the Judgment. A little black Paint will shamefully tincture and spoil twenty gay Colours.
(p. 239)",,23369,"","""For one obscure or confused Idea, especially if it be of great Importance in the Question, intermingled with many clear ones, and placed in its Variety of Aspects towards them, will be in Danger of spreading Confusion over the whole Scene of Ideas, and thus may have an unhappy Influence to overwhelm the Understanding with Darkness, and pervert the Judgment. A little black Paint will shamefully tincture and spoil twenty gay Colours.""","",2014-02-05 22:06:33 UTC,""
4702,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,2014-02-05 22:11:00 UTC,"III. Use all Diligence to acquire and treasure up a large Store of Ideas and Notions: Take every Opportunity to add something to your Stock; and by frequent Recollection fix them in your memory: Nothing tends to confirm and enlarge the Memory like a frequent Review of its Possessions. Then the Brain being well furnished with various Traces, Signatures and Images, will have a rich Treasure always ready to be proposed or offered to the Soul, when it directs its Thoughts towards any particular Subject. This will gradually give the Mind a Faculty of surveying many objects at once; as a Room that is richly adorned and hung round with a great Variety of Pictures, strikes the Eye almost at once with all that Variety, especially if they have been well surveyed one by one at first: This makes it habitual and more easy to the Inhabitants to take in many of those painted Scenes with a single Glance or two.
(pp. 239-40)",,23372,USE IN ENTRY,"""This will gradually give the Mind a Faculty of surveying many objects at once; as a Room that is richly adorned and hung round with a great Variety of Pictures, strikes the Eye almost at once with all that Variety, especially if they have been well surveyed one by one at first: This makes it habitual and more easy to the Inhabitants to take in many of those painted Scenes with a single Glance or two.""",Inhabitants and Rooms,2014-02-05 22:11:00 UTC,""
8014,"","Reading John W. Yolton, ""As in a Looking-Glass: Perceptual Acquaintance in Eighteenth-Century Britain."" Journal of the History of Ideas 40:2 (1979): 223.",2014-07-30 16:42:13 UTC,"My answer is — That if the world serves all the same ends both of contemplation and action, tho' knowable only by idea, as it would if it were visible, or the immediate object of perception, then its invisibility can be no reason against its existence. Now that it doth answer all the fame ends, I thus prove. And, first, as to contemplation. That which would exercise our contemplation in the frame of a world that was visible, must be the vast extent of the whole; and the beautiful order, great variety, and wise subserviency of the parts; from all which we should be led to admire the infinite power, wisdom and goodness of the supreme cause. And are not these perfections equally displayed? And is there not the same reason to adore them, in the formation of this world, if in the main correspondent to our idea of it, as if it were immediately seen? I can discern no difference. I will try is this may not be illustrated. A piece of sculpture admirably wrought is put out to view, but, to preserve it against the injuries of the weather, or for some other reason, is varnished over. Every body extols the artist, and is pleased with his work; and yet no one sees that which was the immediate subject of his art, being hid under the varnish. Our ideas are this thin varnish spread over the face of nature, which do not hinder us from passing a judgment of it; because they express outward objects, much as the varnish takes the form of the work upon which it is laid. And then, secondly, as for action. If my idea of an object; which I would approach or avoid, represent it in the place where it is, why is not this every jot as well as if I had notice of it by immediate perception? So far then we have cleared our way, that an external world may possibly exist; and that no good reason can be drawn from it invisibility, that it doth not actually exift.
(III, pp. 179-180)",,24376,"","""A piece of sculpture admirably wrought is put out to view, but, to preserve it against the injuries of the weather, or for some other reason, is varnished over. Every body extols the artist, and is pleased with his work; and yet no one sees that which was the immediate subject of his art, being hid under the varnish. Our ideas are this thin varnish spread over the face of nature, which do not hinder us from passing a judgment of it; because they express outward objects, much as the varnish takes the form of the work upon which it is laid.""","",2014-07-30 16:42:13 UTC,""
8132,"","Reading Sean Silver, The Mind is a Collection: Case Studies in Eighteenth-Century Thought (Philadelphia: Penn Press, 2015), 275n.",2016-03-11 17:30:00 UTC,"[March 20, 1768] We went at night to the inn on Barnby Moor. We were now jumbled into old acquaintance. I felt myself quite strong, and exulted when I compared my present mind with my mind some years ago. Formerly my mind was quite a lodging-house for all ideas who chose to put up there, so that it was at the mercy of accident, for I had no fixed mind of my own. Now my mind is a house where, though the street rooms and the upper floors are open to strangers, yet there is always a settled family in the back parlour and sleeping-closet behind it; and this family can judge of the ideas which come to lodge. This family! this landlord, let me say, or this landlady, as the mind and the soul are both she. I shall confuse myself with metaphor. Let me then have done with it. Only this more. The ideas--my lodgers--are of all sorts. Some, gentlemen of the law, who pay me a great deal more than others. Divines of all sorts have been with me, and have ever disturbed me. When I first took up house, Presbyterian ministers used to make me melancholy with dreary tones. Methodists next shook my passions. Romish clergy filled me with solemn ideas, and, although their statues and many movable ornaments are gone, yet they drew some pictures upon my walls with such deep strokes that they still remain. They are, indeed, only agreeable ones. I had Deists for a very short while. But they, being sceptics, were perpetually alarming me with thoughts that my walls were made of clay and could not last, so I was glad to get rid of them. I am forced to own that my rooms have been occupied by women of the town, and by some ladies of abandoned manners. But I am resolved that by degrees there shall be only decent people and innocent, gay lodgers.
(pp. 137-8)",,24874,"","""Only this more. The ideas--my lodgers--are of all sorts. Some, gentlemen of the law, who pay me a great deal more than others. Divines of all sorts have been with me, and have ever disturbed me. When I first took up house, Presbyterian ministers used to make me melancholy with dreary tones. Methodists next shook my passions. Romish clergy filled me with solemn ideas, and, although their statues and many movable ornaments are gone, yet they drew some pictures upon my walls with such deep strokes that they still remain. They are, indeed, only agreeable ones. I had Deists for a very short while. But they, being sceptics, were perpetually alarming me with thoughts that my walls were made of clay and could not last, so I was glad to get rid of them. I am forced to own that my rooms have been occupied by women of the town, and by some ladies of abandoned manners. But I am resolved that by degrees there shall be only decent people and innocent, gay lodgers.""",Inhabitants,2016-03-11 17:30:00 UTC,""