text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"Ideas of Sensation furnish the Brutes, and altogether untaught Men with Objects of Use only to their Instincts, to enable them to exert those for their Personal Preservation to provide them with the Means of Subsistence, and to avoid Dangers; and of this Truth the New Holland and New Guinea Savages are as evident a Proof, as any other Species of mere Animals. To the instructed Man they afford a vast Quantity of Materials to exercise Knowledge on, but without being taught that [end page 26] Knowledge to apply them to artificial Purposes, they would signify no more to us, besides assisting the Instincts to take Care of that Body they were planted in, that vast Woods and Quarries of Marble in a Country would furnish it with Fleets, Palaces and Cities, without Workmen to fashion them, and Architects to put them into their respective beautiful Orders. Michael Angelo used to say, that a Statuary was a Man who only pared off Superfluities, since every Block of Marble contained in it all possible Forms; but without a Phidias, a Praxiteles, or a Michael Angelo himself, the Marble will lie for ever rude shapeless Mass in its Quarry. Some have said that the human Mind contained within it the Seeds of all Sciences; the Mind is indeed a Soil in which any of these Seeds may be sown, but it must be cultivated; and without an Husbandman it will continue a mere Tabula rasa, except what the Instincts write on it, without a possibility of astronomical, geographical or other learned Observations, let the Savage stare ever so much about him, and gaze up to the Skies all Night long, for the Stars are mere sensible Objects to the Brute and unlearned Man, as the Moon to a Dog, who only barks at it, or an ignorant Traveller, who neither doth nor can consider it farther than as he hath Occasion for its Light: But to the natural, moral and metaphysical Philosopher, all these become intel- [end page 27] ligible Species, Scientifick Objects, and afford Matter for great Variety and Depth of Learning. At present I require and will use no other Proof, than to desire any one to cast his Eyes and Observation on the ancient Athens and modern Setines, both as to Men and Buildings.
(pp. 26-8)",2009-09-14 19:36:53 UTC,"""Some have said that the human Mind contained within it the Seeds of all Sciences; the Mind is indeed a Soil in which any of these Seeds may be sown, but it must be cultivated; and without an Husbandman it will continue a mere Tabula rasa, except what the Instincts write on it, without a possibility of astronomical, geographical or other learned Observations.""",2006-10-10 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,"","•Rich passage. Postcolonial issues as well: savage as blank slates
•I've included thrice: Seeds, Soil and Tabula Rasa",Searching in ECCO,12351,4684
"[...] And I think that every Age and Nation, every Man that ever lived in any, every Thing that any Man knows, every Thing that he does not know, the Greek and Barbarian, the Attic flowing Eloquence and Laconic fullen thrift of Words, Mithridates, with his twenty two Languages, and the New-Guinea Savage with none, are all equally Proofs and Instances as well as what I have quoted from Mr. Locke, that the human Mind is a Tabula rasa, that any Thing may be writ upon it, and that it cannot have [end page 109] any Thing unless it be write there, but will remain a Blank for ever; that there is a vast variety of Inscriptions made on it, which shews that the Stuff must be the same, which is capable of receiving equally of many Millions of different Impressions.
(pp. 109-10)",2009-09-14 19:36:53 UTC,"""I have quoted from Mr. Locke, that the human Mind is a Tabula rasa, that any Thing may be writ upon it, and that it cannot have any Thing unless it be write there, but will remain a Blank for ever; that there is a vast variety of Inscriptions made on it, which shews that the Stuff must be the same, which is capable of receiving equally of many Millions of different Impressions.""",2006-10-10 00:00:00 UTC,"",Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,,Writing,•Rich passage. Postcolonial issues as well: savage as blank slates
•Author reverses the argument of innatists who claim blank slate can't account for diversity.
•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Inscriptions,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",12354,4684
"The same Arguments which that truly great and judicious Philosopher, Mr. Locke, made use of in order to prove that there were no innate Ideas, will, I think, hold full as strong, and conclude with equal Force and Truth, against all implanted Appetites, Affections, &c. whatsoever. If the Mind be as it were a rasa tabula in respect of the one, the same Reasons make it extremely probable that she must be so in respect of the other likewise. For if God has endow'd Mankind with such Faculties and Powers, as by a proper Cultivation and Use, will enable them to acquire those Affections and Dispositions of Mind, and in a Degree suited to their present dependent Situation in Life, whence arises the Necessity of their being innate? As he has given Man the Means within himself of attaining them, it seems superfluous in the Deity, to impress them originally, and in its first Formation on the Mind, who, as a wise and good Being, will be sure to act in every Particular, for some End, suitable to, and becoming his infinite Perfections. [...]
(p. 5)",2009-09-14 19:36:58 UTC,"""If the Mind be as it were a rasa tabula in respect of the one, the same Reasons make it extremely probable that she must be so in respect of the other likewise""",2006-10-10 00:00:00 UTC,"",Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,,Writing,"","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",12426,4710
"5. These animal Sensations, Appetites, and Instincts therefore, as they are natural and necessary, must be innate, or co-eval and co-existent with the Animal or sensitive Creature itself, since one cannot conceive of an Animal, or any animal Life and Motion, without them. In this, therefore, I am forced to differ from that great Philosopher and Master of Reason, Mr. Locke, who denies and argues against all innate Ideas in general, and of every Kind: He supposes the Soul originally to be as a rasa Tabula, or Blank without any Impression, or distinguishing Character at all, which would be either nothing, or nothing that we can conceive or form any Notion or Idea of; but a Man or his Penetration, and Strength of Judgment, could not but see some Defect in his Reasoning, and that the Word Idea here was too general; and therefore, in prosecuting the Argument, he silently changes the Term Idea for Principle, and then proves very clearly, that we have no innate Principles, Perceptions of Truth, or Judgment of Reason, or no innate Ideas of Reflection: All this is acquired gradually by Observation and Experience, and by comparing one Thing with another, in the several Relations, Reasons, and Proportions of Things. In these Acquisitions and Improvements of Reason, Understand [end page 73] ing, and Judgment, Men are vastly different according to their different Capacities, Opportunities, Attention, and Degrees of Application; and nothing of all this is innate or born with us. In almost every Thing else, I must own Mr. Locke as my Master, and the first Guide and Director of my Understanding: But as this justly celebrated Philosopher, in this Case, might seem to have used the Word Idea in its most general Acceptation, so as to include all the original, simple Impressions of Sense, Appetite, and Instinct; I thought it necessary to remove such a Difficulty or Prejudice, lest the Authority of so great a Man, mistaken and misapplied, might lead others into Error, and darken and perplex, instead of clearing up the Truth to them. It would be equally contrary to Experience, and the present Constitution of Nature, either to suppose, that the Ideas of Sense, Appetite, and Instinct are not innate, or that the Perceptions of the Understanding, or the Judgments and Conclusions of Reason are so.",2009-09-14 19:36:58 UTC,"""In this, therefore, I am forced to differ from that great Philosopher and Master of Reason, Mr. Locke, who denies and argues against all innate Ideas in general, and of every Kind: He supposes the Soul originally to be as a rasa Tabula, or Blank without any Impression, or distinguishing Character at all, which would be either nothing, or nothing that we can conceive or form any Notion or Idea of.""",2006-10-10 00:00:00 UTC,"",Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy; Innate Ideas; Negated Metaphor,,Writing,•Rich passage. Postcolonial issues as well: savage as blank slates
•Author reverses the argument of innatists who claim blank slate can't account for diversity.
•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Blank,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",12427,4711
"But then he distinguishes again concerning this Mind or intellect, and makes it two-fold; agent and Patient: The former of which, he concludes to be immortal, and the latter corruptible. The agent intellect is only immortal and eternal, but the passive is corruptible. Cudworth thinks this a very doubtful and obscure passage; and imagines Aristotle was led to write thus unintelligibly, by his [end page 211] doctrine of forms and qualities; which confounds corporeal, with incorporeal substances: But had that excellent person reflected on the general doctrine of the [GREEK CHARACTERS: TO EN], he would have seen, the passage was plain and easy; and that Aristotle, from the common principle of the human's soul being part of the Divine Substance, draws a conclusion against a future state of separate existence; which, though (as it now appears) all the philosophers embraced, yet all were not so forward to avow. The obvious meaning of the words then is this: The agent Intelligent (says he) is only immortal and eternal, but the passive, corruptible, i.e. The particular sensation of the soul (the passive intelligent) will cease after death; and the substance of it (the agent intelligent) will be resolved into the Soul of the universe. For it was Aristotle's opinion, who compared the soul to a rasa tabula, that human sensations and reflections were passions: These therefore are what he finely calls, the passive intelligent; which, he says, shall cease, or is corruptible. What he meant by the agent intelligent, we learn from his commentators; who interpret it to signify, as Cudworth here acknowledges, the DIVINE INTELLECT; which gloss Aristotle himself fully justifies, in calling it [GREEK CHARACTERS: DEION], divine. But what need many words. The Learned well know, that the intellectus agens of Aristotle was the very same with the anima mundi of Plato and Pythagoras.
(pp. 211-2 in 4th ed.; pp. 389-390 in 1st edition)
",2014-02-05 15:16:44 UTC,"""For it was Aristotle's opinion, who compared the soul to a 'rasa tabula', that human sensations and reflections were passions: These therefore are what he finely calls, the 'passive intelligent'; which, he says, shall cease, or is corruptible.""",2006-10-11 00:00:00 UTC,"Book III, Section iv",Blank Slate,,Writing,"•Cross-reference: this passage is cited in a 1797 translation of Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. (p. 50n)
•Metaphor CONFIRMED.","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO; found in 4th edition, confirmed in 1st.",13436,5011
"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)",2014-02-05 22:08:51 UTC,"""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.""",2014-02-05 22:08:51 UTC,"","",,Coinage,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,23371,4702
"What an unknown and unspeakable Happiness would it be to a Man of Judgment, and who is engaged in the Pursuit of Knowledge, if he had but a Power of stamping all his own best Sentiments upon his Memory in some indelible Characters; and if he could but imprint every valuable Paragraph and Sentiment of the most excellent Authors he has read, upon his Mind, with the same Speed and Facility with which he read them? If a Man of good Genius and Sagacity could but retain and survey all those numerous, those wise and beautiful Ideas at once, which have ever passed through his Thoughts upon any one Subject, how admirably would he be furnished to pass a just Judgment about all present Objects and Occurrences? What a glorious Entertainment and Pleasure would fill and felicitate his Spirit, if he could grasp all these in a single Survey, as the skilful Eye of a Painter runs over a fine and complicate Piece of History wrought by the Hand of a Titian or a Raphael, views the whole Scene at once, and feeds himself with the extensive Delight? But these are Joys that do not belong to Mortality.
(p. 253-4)",2014-02-05 22:19:47 UTC,"""What an unknown and unspeakable Happiness would it be to a Man of Judgment, and who is engaged in the Pursuit of Knowledge, if he had but a Power of stamping all his own best Sentiments upon his Memory in some indelible Characters; and if he could but imprint every valuable Paragraph and Sentiment of the most excellent Authors he has read, upon his Mind, with the same Speed and Facility with which he read them?""",2014-02-05 22:19:47 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,INTEREST,Searching and Reading in Google Books,23379,4702
"So for Instance, in Children; they perceive and forget a hundred Things in an Hour; the Brain is so soft that it receives immediately all Impressions like Water or liquid Mud, and retains scarce any of them: All the Traces, Forms or Images which are drawn there, are immediately effaced or closed up again, as though you wrote with your Finger on the Surface of a River or on a Vessel of Oil.
(pp. 255-6)",2014-02-05 22:22:59 UTC,"""So for Instance, in Children; they perceive and forget a hundred Things in an Hour; the Brain is so soft that it receives immediately all Impressions like Water or liquid Mud, and retains scarce any of them: All the Traces, Forms or Images which are drawn there, are immediately effaced or closed up again, as though you wrote with your Finger on the Surface of a River or on a Vessel of Oil.""",2014-02-05 22:22:59 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,23381,4702
"On the contrary, in old Age, Men have a very feeble Remembrance of Things that were done of late, i.e. the same Day or Week or Year; the Brain is grown so hard that the present Images or Strokes make little or no Impression, and therefore they immediately vanish: Prisco in his seventy eighth Year will tell long Stories of Things done when he was in the Battle at the Boyne almost fifty Years ago, and when he studied at Oxford seven Years before; for those Impressions were made when the Brain was more susceptive of them; they have been deeply engraven at the proper season, and therefore they remain. But Words and Things which he lately spoke or did, they are immediately forgot, because the Brain is now grown more dry and solid in its Consistence, and receives not much more impression than if you wrote with your Finger on a Floor of Clay, or a plaister'd Wall.
(p. 256)",2014-02-05 22:26:40 UTC,"""But Words and Things which he lately spoke or did, they are immediately forgot, because the Brain is now grown more dry and solid in its Consistence, and receives not much more impression than if you wrote with your Finger on a Floor of Clay, or a plaister'd Wall.""",2014-02-05 22:26:40 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY. REVISIT.,Searching and Reading in Google Books,23384,4702
"When you would remember new Things or Words, endeavour to associate and connect them with some Words or Things which you have well known before, and which are fixed and established in your Memory. This Association of Ideas is of great Importance and Force, and may be of excellent Use in many Instances of Human Life. One Idea which is familiar to the Mind connected with others which are new and strange, will bring those new Ideas into easy Remembrance. Maronides had got the first hundred Lines of Virgil's Æneis printed upon his Memory so perfectly, that he knew not only the Order and Number of every Verse from one to a hundred in Perfection, but the Order and Number of every Word in each Verse also; and by this Means he would undertake to remember two or three hundred Names of Persons or Things by some rational or fantastic Connexion between some Word in the verse, and some Letter, Syllable, Property, or Accident of the Name or Thing to be remembered, even tho' they had been repeated over but once or twice at most in his Hearing. Animanto practised much the same Art of Memory by getting the Latin Names of twenty two Animals into his Head according to the Alphabet, viz. Asinus, Basilicus, Canis, Draco, Elephas, Felis, Gryfus, Hircus, Juvencus, Leo, Mulus, Noctua, Ovis, Panthera, Quadrupes, Rhinoceros, Simia, Taurus, Ursus, Xiphias, Hyæna or Yœna, Zibetta. Most of these he divided also into four Parts, viz. Head and Body, Feet, Fins or Wings and Tail, and by some arbitrary or chimerical Attachment of each of these to a Word or Thing which he desired to remember, he committed them to the Care of his Memory, and that with good Success.
(pp. 273-4)",2014-02-05 22:38:15 UTC,"""Maronides had got the first hundred Lines of Virgil's 'Æneis' printed upon his Memory so perfectly, that he knew not only the Order and Number of every Verse from one to a hundred in Perfection, but the Order and Number of every Word in each Verse also.""",2014-02-05 22:38:15 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,23393,4702