id,dictionary,theme,reviewed_on,metaphor,created_at,provenance,comments,work_id,text,context,updated_at
10612,Inhabitants,Soliloquy,,"""You would wonder to hear how close he pushes matters and how thoroughly he carries on the business of self-dissection. By virtue of this soliloquy, he becomes two distinct persons. He is pupil and preceptor. He teaches and he learns.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,•Cross-reference: the preceding bit about self-dissection puts me in mind of Godwin. Is this an intertext?,4136,"Go to the poets, and they will present you with many instances. Nothing is more common with them than this sort of soliloquy. A person of profound parts, or perhaps of ordinary capacity, happens on some occasion to commit a fault. He is concerned for it. He comes alone upon the stage, looks about him to see if anybody be near, then takes himself to task without sparing himself in the least. You would wonder to hear how close he pushes matters and how thoroughly he carries on the business of self-dissection. By virtue of this soliloquy, he becomes two distinct persons. He is pupil and preceptor. He teaches and he learns. And, in good earnest, had I nothing else to plead in behalf of the morals of our modern dramatic poets, I should defend them still against their accusers for the sake of this very practice, which they have taken care to keep up in its full force. For whether the practice be natural or no in respect of common custom and usage, I take upon me to assert that it is an honest and laudable practice and that, if already it be not natural to us, we ought however to make it so by study and application.
(p. 72)","Part I, Section 1",2013-07-09 20:00:10 UTC
10613,"",Soliloquy,,"""For company is an extreme provocative to fancy and, like a hotbed in gardening, is apt to make our imaginations sprout too fast.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,"•In the next paragraph Shaftesbury calls this superabundance of pent up speech ""froth""",4136,"'Are we to go therefore to the stage for edification? Must we learn our catechism from the poets and, like the players, speak aloud what we debate at any time with ourselves alone?' Not absolutely so, perhaps, thought where the harm would be of spending some discourse and bestowing a little breath and clear voice purely upon ourselves, I cannot see. We might peradventure be less noisy and more profitable in company if at convenient times we discharged some of our articulate sound and spoke to ourselves vivâ voce when alone. For company is an extreme provocative to fancy and, like a hotbed in gardening, is apt to make our imaginations sprout too fast. But, by this anticipating remedy of soliloquy, we may effectually provide against the inconvenience.
(p. 72)","Part I, Section 1",2012-09-26 18:01:26 UTC
10614,"",Soliloquy,,"""And the prince of this latter tribe may be proved to have been a great frequenter of the wood and river banks, where he consumed abundance of his breath, suffered his fancy to evaporate, and reduced the vehemence both of his spirit and voice.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,"•In the next paragraph Shaftesbury calls this a ""method of evacuation."" Are we meant to think of Swift?",4136,"It is remarkable in all great wits that they have owned this practice of ours, and generally described themselves as a people liable to sufficient ridicule for their great loquacity by themselves and their profound taciturnity in company. Not only the poet and philosopher, but the orator himself was wont to have recourse to our method. And the prince of this latter tribe may be proved to have been a great frequenter of the wood and river banks, where he consumed abundance of his breath, suffered his fancy to evaporate, and reduced the vehemence both of his spirit and voice. If other authors find nothing which invites them to these recesses, it is because their genius is not of force enough, or, though it be, their character, they may imagine, will hardly bear them out. For to be surprised in the odd actions, gestures or tones which are proper to such ascetics, I must own would be an ill adventure for a man of the world. But, with poets and philosophers, it is a known case: Either the man is crazy or else he makes verses.
(p. 73)","Part I, Section 1",2009-09-14 19:35:07 UTC
10615,"","",,"""For let will be ever so free, humour and fancy, we see, govern it.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,"•REVISIT the paragraph previous to this one and decide if double souls deserve there own entry. See also ""duplicity of soul"" (77). ",4136,"Thus it may appear how far a lover by his own natural strength may reach the chief principle of philosophy and understand our doctrine of two persons in one individual self. Not that our courtier, we suppose, was able of himself to form this distinction justly and according to art. For could he have effected this, he would have been able to cure himself without the assistance of his prince. However, he was wise enough to see in the issue that his independency and freedom were mere glosses and resolution, a nose of wax. For let will be ever so free, humour and fancy, we see, govern it. And these, as free as we suppose them, are often changed we know not how, without asking our consent or giving us any account. If opinion be that which governs and makes the change, it is itself as liable to be governed and varied in its turn. And by what I can observe of the world, fancy and opinion stand pretty much upon the same bottom. So that, if there be no certain inspector or auditor established within us to take account of these opinions and fancies in due form and minutely to animadvert upon their several growths and habits, we are as little like to continue a day in the same will as a tree, during the summer, in the same shape, without the gardener's assistance and the vigorous application of the shears and pruning knife.
(p. 83)","Part I, Section 2",2012-09-26 18:03:27 UTC
10616,Garden,Personal Identity,2012-04-24,"""So that, if there be no certain inspector or auditor established within us to take account of these opinions and fancies in due form and minutely to animadvert upon their several growths and habits, we are as little like to continue a day in the same will as a tree, during the summer, in the same shape, without the gardener's assistance and the vigorous application of the shears and pruning knife.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,•Shaftesbury's take on personal identity. A matter of animadversion and pruning. ,4136,"Thus it may appear how far a lover by his own natural strength may reach the chief principle of philosophy and understand our doctrine of two persons in one individual self. Not that our courtier, we suppose, was able of himself to form this distinction justly and according to art. For could he have effected this, he would have been able to cure himself without the assistance of his prince. However, he was wise enough to see in the issue that his independency and freedom were mere glosses and resolution, a nose of wax. For let will be ever so free, humour and fancy, we see, govern it. And these, as free as we suppose them, are often changed we know not how, without asking our consent or giving us any account. If opinion be that which governs and makes the change, it is itself as liable to be governed and varied in its turn. And by what I can observe of the world, fancy and opinion stand pretty much upon the same bottom. So that, if there be no certain inspector or auditor established within us to take account of these opinions and fancies in due form and minutely to animadvert upon their several growths and habits, we are as little like to continue a day in the same will as a tree, during the summer, in the same shape, without the gardener's assistance and the vigorous application of the shears and pruning knife.
(p. 83)","Part I, Section 2",2012-09-26 18:04:36 UTC
10617,Inhabitants,Personal Identity,,"""It appears besides, like a kind of Pedantry, to be thus magisterial with our-selves; thus strict over our Imaginations, and with all the airs of a real Pedagogue to be sollicitously taken up in the four Care and Tutorage of so many boyish Fancys, unlucky Appetites and Desires, which are perpetually playing truant, and need Correction.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading; confirmed in Google Books.,"•More of Shaftesbury's take on personal identity. INTEREST. Note that many ancient and medieval dialogues are held between preceptor and pupil. In fact, in an earlier paragraph Shaftesbury argued that soliloquy divides us into these two figures.",4136,"As cruel a Court as the Inquisition appears; there must, it seems, be full as formidable a one, erected in our-selves; if we wou'd pretend to that Uniformity of Opinion which is necessary to hold us to one Will, and preserve us in the same Mind, from one day to another. Philosophy, at this rate, will be thought perhaps little better than Persecution. And a Supreme Judg in matters of Inclination and Appetite, must needs go exceedingly against the Heart. Every pretty Fancy is disturb'd by it: Every Pleasure interrupted by it. The Course of good Humour will hardly allow it: And the Pleasantry of Wit almost absolutely rejects it. It appears besides, like a kind of Pedantry, to be thus magisterial with our-selves; thus strict over our Imaginations, and with all the airs of a real Pedagogue to be sollicitously taken up in the four Care and Tutorage of so many boyish Fancys, unlucky Appetites and Desires, which are perpetually playing truant, and need Correction.
(p. 186; cf. 34-35 in 1710 edition; and cf. pp. 83-4 in Klein)","Part I, Section 2",2014-07-15 14:36:24 UTC
10618,Inhabitants,Psychomachia,,"""For Appetite, which is elder Brother to Reason, being the Lad of stronger Growth, is sure, on every contest, to take the advantage of drawing all to his own side.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,•Psychomachia is more of a game here. ,4136,"This, perhaps, will be thought a Miracle by one who well considers the Nature of Mankind, and the Growth, Variation, and Inflection of Appetite and Humour. For Appetite, which is elder Brother to Reason, being the Lad of stronger Growth, is sure, on every contest, to take the advantage of drawing all to his own side. And Will, so highly boasted, is but at best, a Foot-Ball or Top between these Youngsters, who prove very unfortunately match'd; till the youngest, instead of now and then a Kick or Lash bestow'd to little purpose, forsakes the Ball or Top it-self, and begins to lay about his elder Brother. 'Tis then that the Scene changes. For the elder, like an arrant Coward, upon this treatment, presently grows civil, and affords the younger as fair Play afterwards as he can desire.
(p. 187, p. 84 in Klein)","Part I, Section 2",2013-07-09 21:14:30 UTC
10619,Inhabitants,Psychomachia,,"""And Will, so highly boasted, is but at best, a Foot-Ball or Top between these Youngsters [Appetite and Reason], who prove very unfortunately match'd; till the youngest, instead of now and then a Kick or Lash bestow'd to little purpose, forsakes the Ball or Top it-self, and begins to lay about his elder Brother.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,•Psychomachia is more of a game here. ,4136,"This, perhaps, will be thought a Miracle by one who well considers the Nature of Mankind, and the Growth, Variation, and Inflection of Appetite and Humour. For Appetite, which is elder Brother to Reason, being the Lad of stronger Growth, is sure, on every contest, to take the advantage of drawing all to his own side. And Will, so highly boasted, is but at best, a Foot-Ball or Top between these Youngsters, who prove very unfortunately match'd; till the youngest, instead of now and then a Kick or Lash bestow'd to little purpose, forsakes the Ball or Top it-self, and begins to lay about his elder Brother. 'Tis then that the Scene changes. For the elder, like an arrant Coward, upon this treatment, presently grows civil, and affords the younger as fair Play afterwards as he can desire.
(p. 187, p. 84 in Klein)","Part I, Section 2",2013-07-09 21:15:42 UTC
10620,Rooms,"",,"""For it is well known we are not many of us like that Roman who wished for windows to his breast that all might be as conspicuous there as in his house, which, for that reason, he had built as open as was possible.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,•And is this the case with Romantic poets?
•Cross-reference: Sterne's Shandy and the dioptrical beehive.,4136,"Our present manners, I must own, are not so well calculated for this method of soliloquy as to suffer it to become a nationl practice. It is but a small portion of this regimen which I would willingly borrow and apply to private use, especially in the case of authors. I am sensible how fatal it might prove to many honourable persons, should they acquire such a habit as this or offer to practise such an art within reach of any mortal ear. For it is well known we are not many of us like that Roman who wished for windows to his breast that all might be as conspicuous there as in his house, which, for that reason, he had built as open as was possible. I would therefore advise our probationer upon his first exercise to retire into some thick wood or, rather, take the point of some high hill where, besides the advantage of looking about him for security, he would find the air perhaps more rarefied and suitable to the perspiration required, especially in the case of a poetical genius: The entire troop of authors loves a grove and shuns cities.
(p. 73)","Part I, Section 1",2010-03-11 16:04:20 UTC
10621,Inhabitants,"",,"""And here it is that our Sovereign Remedy and Gymnastick Method of Soliloquy takes its Rise: when by a certain powerful Figure of inward Rhetorick, the Mind apostrophizes its own Fancys, raises'em in their proper Shapes and Personages, and addresses 'em familiarly, without the least Ceremony or Respect. By this means it will soon happen that Two form'd Partys will erect themselves within. For the Imaginations or Fancys being thus roundly treated, are forc'd to declare themselves, and take Party.""",2003-11-06 00:00:00 UTC,Reading,"",4136,"And here it is that our Sovereign Remedy and Gymnastick Method of Soliloquy takes its Rise: when by a certain powerful Figure of inward Rhetorick, the Mind apostrophizes its own Fancys, raises'em in their proper Shapes and Personages, and addresses 'em familiarly, without the least Ceremony or Respect. By this means it will soon happen that Two form'd Partys will erect themselves within. For the Imaginations or Fancys being thus roundly treated, are forc'd to declare themselves, and take Party. Those on the side of the elder Brother Appetite, are strangely subtile and insinuating. They have always the Faculty to speak by Nods and Winks. By this practice they conceal half their meaning, and like modern Politicians pass for deeply wise, and adorn themselves with the finest Pretexts and most specious Glosses imaginable; till being confronted with their Fellows of a plainer Language and Expression, they are forc'd to quit their mysterious Manner, and discover themselves mere Sophisters and Impostors, who have not the least to do with the Party of Reason and good Sense.
(pp. 188; pp. 84-5 in Klein)","Part I, Section 2",2013-07-09 21:18:07 UTC