theme,metaphor,work_id,dictionary,provenance,id,created_at,updated_at,reviewed_on,comments,text,context
Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,"""According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank.""",5705,Writing,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",15217,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:43:03 UTC,,"•RICH passage, REVISIT.
•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Blank.
•Taylor seems like quite a character. See ODNB.","According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank. According to Plato, she is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy. On the former system, she is on a level with the most degraded natures, the receptacle of material species, and the spectator of delusion and non-entity. Hence, her energies are nothing but somnolent perceptions, and encumbered cogitations; of all her knowledge terminated in sense, and her science in passion. Like a man between sleeping and waking, her visions are turbid and confused, and the phantoms of a material night, continually glide before her drowsy eye. But on the latter system, the soul is the connecting medium of an intelligible and sensible nature, the bright repository of all middle forms, and the vigilant eye of all cogitative reasons. Hence she is capable of rousing herself from the sleep of a corporeal life, and emerging from this dark Cimmerian land, into the regions of light and reality. At first, indeed, before she is excited by science, she is oppressed with lethargy, and clouded with oblivion; but in proportion as learning and enquiry stimulate her dormant powers, she wakens from the dreams of ignorance, and opens her eye to the irradiations of wis- [end page xxxi] dom. On Mr. Locke's system, the principles of science and sense are the same, for the energies of both originate from material forms, on which they are continually employed. Hence, science is subject to the flowing and perishable nature of particulars; and if body and its attributes were destroyed, would be nothing but a name. But on the system of Plato, they differ as much as delusions and reality; for here the vital, permanent, and lucid nature of ideas is the fountain of science; and the inert, unstable, and obscure nature of sensible objects, the source of sensation. On Mr. Locke's system, body may be modified into thought, and become an intelligent creature; it may be subtilized into life, and shrink, by its exility, into intellect. On that of Plato, body can never alter its nature by modification, however, it may be rarefied and refined, varied by the transposition of its part, or tortured by the hand of experiment. In short, the two systems may be aptly represented by the two sections of a line, in Plato's Republic. In the ancient, you have truth itself, and whatever participates of the brightest evidence and reality: in the modern, ignorance, and whatever belongs to obscurity and shadow. The former fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries her downwards into the dark labyrinths of matter.
(pp. xxxi-xxxii)",""
"","""According to Plato, she [the soul] is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy.""",5705,Writing,Searching in ECCO,15219,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:43:04 UTC,,•Taylor seems like quite a character. See ODNB.,"According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank. According to Plato, she is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy. On the former system, she is on a level with the most degraded natures, the receptacle of material species, and the spectator of delusion and non-entity. Hence, her energies are nothing but somnolent perceptions, and encumbered cogitations; of all her knowledge terminated in sense, and her science in passion. Like a man between sleeping and waking, her visions are turbid and confused, and the phantoms of a material night, continually glide before her drowsy eye. But on the latter system, the soul is the connecting medium of an intelligible and sensible nature, the bright repository of all middle forms, and the vigilant eye of all cogitative reasons. Hence she is capable of rousing herself from the sleep of a corporeal life, and emerging from this dark Cimmerian land, into the regions of light and reality. At first, indeed, before she is excited by science, she is oppressed with lethargy, and clouded with oblivion; but in proportion as learning and enquiry stimulate her dormant powers, she wakens from the dreams of ignorance, and opens her eye to the irradiations of wis- [end page xxxi] dom. On Mr. Locke's system, the principles of science and sense are the same, for the energies of both originate from material forms, on which they are continually employed. Hence, science is subject to the flowing and perishable nature of particulars; and if body and its attributes were destroyed, would be nothing but a name. But on the system of Plato, they differ as much as delusions and reality; for here the vital, permanent, and lucid nature of ideas is the fountain of science; and the inert, unstable, and obscure nature of sensible objects, the source of sensation. On Mr. Locke's system, body may be modified into thought, and become an intelligent creature; it may be subtilized into life, and shrink, by its exility, into intellect. On that of Plato, body can never alter its nature by modification, however, it may be rarefied and refined, varied by the transposition of its part, or tortured by the hand of experiment. In short, the two systems may be aptly represented by the two sections of a line, in Plato's Republic. In the ancient, you have truth itself, and whatever participates of the brightest evidence and reality: in the modern, ignorance, and whatever belongs to obscurity and shadow. The former fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries her downwards into the dark labyrinths of matter.
(pp. xxxi-xxxii)",""
"","""There are occupations in the world, which mould a man into a certain form for life, like a piece of paper which has once been folded, its marks are never obliterated.""",5913,Writing,Searching in HDIS (Drama),15685,2005-08-10 00:00:00 UTC,2011-07-30 21:04:42 UTC,,"","STEPANOFF.
An excellent fellow this Wasili! There are occupations in the world, which mould a man into a certain form for life, like a piece of paper which has once been folded, its marks are never obliterated. Does not one discover at the first sight, that this man has been a page of the bed-chamber? He announces those that arrive, he conducts them when they depart, he busies himself in carrying news, he knows how to set out a table, he is as idle as a fat lap-dog, and the inside of his head is like a woman's work-basket.","Act I, scene i"
"","""That frequently happens; and when once a false idea is impressed, it is very difficult to erase it, particularly at your age; as you are not yet capable of distinguishing the false from the true.""",6749,Impressions and Writing,"Contributed by PC Fleming, searching ""idea.""",17967,2010-07-16 22:09:32 UTC,2013-06-14 04:25:41 UTC,,"","That frequently happens; and when once a false idea is impressed, it is very difficult to erase it, particularly at your age; as you are not yet capable of distinguishing the false from the true.
(Vol. I, page 86).",""
"","""They converse not, they open not their mouths, they are silent, but they engrave their principles on the heart in indelible characters, instead of inconsistently crowding them on the memory.""",6749,Writing,"Contributed by PC Fleming, searching ""heart""",17978,2010-07-17 15:56:17 UTC,2013-06-13 21:19:09 UTC,,"","Then you must have remarked, that one of the greatest advantages of republican government, is the immediate influence it has over individuals, that it animates the general mass in every part; it gives life and activity, and consequently, makes known to each person his own worth, which, perhaps, in another form of government, he would have been unconscious of; it, at the same time, inspires public spirit, which, by a free profession of the same principles, unites all these different powers, and renders them useful in one common centre for the general good. Public schools, instituted upon good plans, are simpilar to this republican government, and procure their pupils the same advantages. The general mass is composed of children. The institution tends to inform each of his own value, and to increase it, Their union, teaches them to respect the fundamental rights of general society. Merit and talents, or rather the hope that fore-runs and convinces them, assigns to each his place. Justice there decides singly and uniformly, without respect to persons. Example, experience, and necessity are the preceptors who teach, or rather the masters who command. They converse not, they open not their mouths, they are silent, but they engrave their principles on the heart in indelible characters, instead of inconsistently crowding them on the memory. (Vol. II, pages 347-8)",Con. XX
"","""Hark you, mine honest friend! a woman in love enquires not whether the object of her passion can read or write; for love is only legible in the eyes, and in the heart only is it written.""",5936,Writing,Searching in HDIS (Drama),19048,2011-07-28 20:49:13 UTC,2011-07-28 20:49:13 UTC,,"","ELVIRA.
Hark you, mine honest friend! a woman in love enquires not whether the object of her passion can read or write; for love is only legible in the eyes, and in the heart only is it written. Valour holds a woman's soul in far securer chains than Science. Pizarro combats with the sword, you with the pen. He is prodigal of blood, you only prodigal of ink.
(I.i)","Act I, scene i"