work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5681,Materialism,First encountered reading in Lonsdale,2003-07-28 00:00:00 UTC,"Perish th' illiberal thought which would debase
The native genius of the sable race!
Perish the proud philosophy, which sought
To rob them of the powers of equal thought!
Does then th' immortal principle within
Change with the casual colour of the skin?
Does matter govern spirit? or is mind
Degraded by the form to which 'tis joined?
No: they have heads to think, and hearts to feel
And souls to act with firm, thought unerring zeal;
For they have keen affections, kind desires,
Love strong as death, and active patriot fires;
All the rude energy, the fervid flame,
Of high-souled passions, and ingenuous shame:
Strong but luxuriant virtues boldly shoot
From the wild vigour of a savage root.
Nor weak their sense of honour's proud control,
For pride is virtue in a pagan soul;
A sense of worth, a conscience of desert,
A high, unbroken haughtiness of heart:
That self-same stuff which erst proud empires swayed,
Of which the conquerors of the world were made.
Capricious fate of man! that very pride
In Afric scourg'd, in Rome was deify'd.
(ll. 59-82, p. 103 in Wood, pp. 330-1 in Lonsdale)
",2012-08-14,15155,"•Excerpted in Lonsdale
•""Sable"" minds: watch More's racialism construct them. I should look at the complete poem for richer metaphors.[Done so: 8/2012]
Reviewed 2009-06-09","""Does matter govern spirit? or is mind / Degraded by the form to which 'tis joined?""","",2012-08-14 13:23:26 UTC,""
7590,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2013-08-16 04:20:57 UTC,"DARIUS.
Pharnaces, speak!
I know thou lov'st me; I but meant to chide
Thy flatt'ry, not reprove thee for thy zeal.
Speak boldly, friends, as man shou'd speak to man.
Perish the barb'rous maxims of the East,
Which basely wou'd enslave the free-born mind,
And plunder it of the best gift of Heav'n,
Its liberty!
(pp. 212-3)",,22181,"","""Perish the barb'rous maxims of the East, / Which basely wou'd enslave the free-born mind, / And plunder it of the best gift of Heav'n, / Its liberty!""",Fetters,2013-08-16 04:20:57 UTC,""
7737,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-10-16 16:59:38 UTC,"The most pointed satire I remember to have read, on a mind enslaved by anger, is an observation of Seneca's.
Alexander (said he) had two friends, Clitus and Lysimachus; the one he exposed to a lion, the other to himself: he who was turned loose to the beast escaped, but Clitus was murdered, for he was turned loose to an angry man.