work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3948,"","Searching ""mind"" in Ad Fontes's Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts",2005-07-20 00:00:00 UTC,"The Third Head in this Article, is that which is negatively expressed, That God is without Body, Parts, or Passions. In general, all these are so plainly contrary to the Ideas of Infinite Perfection, and they appear so evidently to be Imperfections, that this part of the Article will need little Explanation. We do plainly perceive that our Bodies are clogs to our Minds: And all the use that even the purest sort of Body in an Estate conceived to be glorified, can be of to a Mind, is to be an Instrument of local Motion, or to be a repository of Ideas for Memory and Imagination: But God, who is every where, and is one pure and simple Act, can have no such use for a Body. A Mind dwelling in a Body, is in many respects superior to it; yet in some [end page 54] respects is under it. We who feel how an Act of our Mind can so direct the Motions of our Body, that a thought sets our Limbs and Joints a-going, can from thence conceive, how that the whole extent of Matter, should receive such Motions as the Acts of the Supreme Mind give it: But yet not as a Body united to it, or that the Deity either needs such a Body, or can receive any trouble from it. Thus far the apprehension of the thing is very plainly made out to us. Our thoughts put some parts of our Body in a present Motion, when the Organization is regular, and all the parts are exact; and when there is no Obstruction in those Vessels or Passages through which that heat, and those Spirits do pass that cause the motion. We do in this perceive, that a thought does command matter; but our Minds are limited to our Bodies, and these do not obey them; but as they are in an exact disposition and a fitness to be so moved. Now these are plain Imperfections, but removing them from God, we can from hence apprehend that all the Matter in the Universe, may be so intirely subject to the Divine Mind, that it shall move and be whatsoever, and wheresoever he will have it to be. This is that which all men do agree in.
(pp. 54-5)",2011-08-31,10262,"","""We do plainly perceive that our Bodies are clogs to our Minds: And all the use that even the purest sort of Body in an Estate conceived to be glorified, can be of to a Mind, is to be an Instrument of local Motion, or to be a repository of Ideas for Memory and Imagination.""",Fetters,2011-08-31 13:38:37 UTC,""
5642,"","Reading Christopher Westbury and Daniel C. Dennett, ""Mining the Past to Construct the Future: Memory and Belief as Forms of Knowledge."" in Memory, Brain, and Belief. Ed. Daniel L. Schacter and Elaine Scarry. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2000. p. 11.",2009-09-14 19:42:43 UTC,"The analogy between memory and a repository, and between remembering and retaining, is obvious and is to be found in all languages; it being natural to express the operations of the mind by images taken from things material. But in philosophy we ought to draw aside the veil of imagery, and to view them naked.",2009-06-15,15080,•INTEREST. Meta-metaphorical. Reid points up metaphors of mind but then claims we should be able to do without them. REVISIT. USE. FASCINATING.,"""The analogy between memory and a repository, and between remembering and retaining, is obvious and is to be found in all languages.""","",2009-09-14 19:42:43 UTC,""
5583,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 19:28:34 UTC,"IT is not easy to describe, in words, the precise impression which great and sublime objects make upon us, when we behold them; but every one has a conception of it. It consists in a kind of admiration and expansion of the mind; it raises the mind much above its ordinary state; and fills it with a degree of wonder and astonishment, which it cannot well express. The emotion is certainly delightful; but it is altogether of the serious kind: a degree of awfulness and solemnity, even approaching to severity, commonly attends it when at its height; very distinguishable from the more gay and brisk emotion raised by beautiful objects.
THE simplest form of external Grandeur appears in the vast and boundless prospects presented to us by nature; such as wide extended plains, to which the eye can see no limits; the firmament of Heaven; or the boundless expanse of the Ocean. All vastness produces the impression of Sublimity. It is to be remarked, however, that space, extended in length, makes not so strong an impression as height or depth. Though a boundless plain be a grand object, yet a high mountain, to which we look up, or an awful precipice or tower whence we look down on the objects which lie below, is still more so. The excessive Grandeur of the firmament arises from its height, joined to its boundless extent; and that of the ocean, not from its extent alone, but from the perpetual motion and irresistible force of that mass of waters. Wherever space is concerned, it is clear, that amplitude or greatness of extent, in one dimension or other, is necessary to Grandeur. Remove all bounds from any object, and you presently render it sublime. Hence infinite space, endless numbers, and eternal duration, fill the mind with great ideas.
(Vol. I, Lecture III, pp. 55-6)",,23262,"","""Hence infinite space, endless numbers, and eternal duration, fill the mind with great ideas.""","",2013-11-18 19:28:34 UTC,""
5583,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 19:31:13 UTC,"A STORM or tempest, for instance, is a Sublime object in nature. But, to render it Sublime in description, it is not enough, either to give us mere general expressions concerning the violence of the tempest, or to describe its common, vulgar effects, in overthrowing trees and houses. It must be painted with such circumstances as fill the mind with great and awful ideas. This is very happily done by Virgil, in the following passage:
Ipse Pater, media nimborum in nocte, coruscâ
Fulmina molitur dextrâ; quo maxima motu
Terra tremit; fugere ferae; & mortalia corda,
Per gentes humilis stravit pavor: Ille, flagranti
Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo
Dejicit*.—
GEORG. I.
(Vol. I, Lecture IV, pp. 83-4)",,23265,"","""It must be painted with such circumstances as fill the mind with great and awful ideas.""","",2013-11-18 19:31:13 UTC,""
5107,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 20:56:16 UTC,"In the latter passage, the most striking circumstances are selected to fill the mind with the grand and terrible. The former is a collection of minute and low circumstances, which scatter the thought and make no impression. The passage at the same time is full of verbal antitheses and low conceit, extremely improper in a scene of distress. But this last observation is made occasionally only, as it belongs not to the present subject.
(I.iv, p. 290)",,23290,"","""In the latter passage, the most striking circumstances are selected to fill the mind with the grand and terrible. The former is a collection of minute and low circumstances, which scatter the thought and make no impression.""",Impressions,2013-11-18 20:56:16 UTC,""
5107,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 21:49:10 UTC,"The natural rate of succession, depends also in some degree upon the particular perceptions that compose the train. An agreeable object, taking a strong hold of the mind, occasions a slower succession than when the objects are indifferent. Grandeur and novelty fix the attention for a considerable time, excluding all other ideas; and the mind thus occupied feels no vacuity. Some emotions, by hurrying the mind from object to object, accelerate the succession. Where the train is composed of connected objects, the succession is quick. For it is so ordered by nature, that the mind goes easily and sweetly along connected objects*. On the other hand, the succession must be slow where the train is composed of unconnected objects. An unconnected object, finding no ready access to the mind, requires time to make an impression. And that it is not admitted without a struggle, appears from the unsettled state of the mind for some moments after it is presented, wavering betwixt it and the former train. During this short period, one or other of the former objects will intrude, perhaps oftener than once, till the attention be fixt entirely upon the new object. The same observations are applicable to ideas suggested by language. The mind can bear a quick succession of related ideas. But an unrelated idea, for which the mind is not prepared, takes time to make a distinct impression; and therefore a train composed of such ideas, ought to proceed with a slow pace. Hence an epic poem, a play, or any story connected in all its parts, may be perused in a shorter time, than a book of maxims or apothegms, of which a quick succession creates both confusion and fatigue.
(I.ix, pp. 383-5)",,23299,"","""Grandeur and novelty fix the attention for a considerable time, excluding all other ideas; and the mind thus occupied feels no vacuity.""","",2013-11-18 21:49:10 UTC,""
5107,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 21:52:12 UTC,"Such latitude hath nature indulged in the rate of succession. What latitude it indulges with respect to uniformity we proceed to examine. The uniformity or variety of a train, so far as composed of external objects, depends on the particular objects that surround the percipient at the time. The present occupation must also have an influence; one is sometimes engaged in a multiplicity of affairs, sometimes altogether vacant. A natural train of ideas of memory is more circumscribed, each object being linked, by some connection, to what precedes and to what follows it. These connections, which are many and of different kinds, afford scope for a sufficient degree of variety; and at the same time prevent any excess that is unpleasant. Temper and constitution also have an influence here, as well as upon the rate of succession. A man of a calm and sedate temper, admits not willingly any idea but what is regularly introduced by a proper connection. One of a roving disposition embraces with avidity every new idea, however slender its relation be to those that go before it. Neither must we overlook the nature of the perceptions that compose the train; for their influence is not less with respect to uniformity and variety, than with respect to the rate of succession. The mind ingrossed by any passion, love or hatred, hope or fear, broods over its object, and can bear no interruption. In such a state, the train of perceptions must not only be slow, but extremely uniform. Anger newly inflamed eagerly grasps its object, and leaves not a cranny in the mind for another thought than of revenge. In the character of Hotspur, this state of mind is represented to the life; a picture remarkable for high colouring as well as for strictness of imitation: [...]
(I.ix, pp. 385-7; II, 218-9 in Liberty Fund ed.)",,23302,"","""In such a state, the train of perceptions must not only be slow, but extremely uniform. Anger newly inflamed eagerly grasps its object, and leaves not a cranny in the mind for another thought than of revenge.""","",2013-11-18 21:52:12 UTC,""
5073,"",Reading,2014-06-19 18:08:15 UTC,"The peculiar character and manners which we are led by custom to appropriate to each rank and profession, have sometimes perhaps a propriety independent of custom; and are what we should approve of for their own sakes, if we took into consideration all the different circumstances which naturally affect those in each different state of life. The propriety of a person's behaviour, depends not upon its suitableness to any one circumstance of his situation, but to all the circumstances, which, when we bring his case home to ourselves we feel, should naturally call upon his attention. If he appears to be so much occupied by any one of them, as entirely to neglect the rest, we disapprove of his conduct, as something which we cannot entirely go along with, because not perfectly adjusted to all the circumstances of his situation: yet, perhaps, the emotion he expresses for the object which principally interests him, does not exceed what we should entirely sympathize with, and approve of, in one whose attention was not required by any other thing. A parent in private life might, upon the loss of an only son, express without blame, a degree of grief and tenderness, which would be unpardonable in a general at the head of an army, when glory, and the public safety, demanded so great a part of his attention. As different objects ought, upon common occasions, to occupy the attention of men of different professions, so different passions ought naturally to become habitual to them; and when we bring home to ourselves their situation in this particular respect, we must be sensible, that every occurrence should naturally affect them more or less, according as the emotion which it excites, coincides or disagrees with the fixt habit and temper of their minds. We cannot expect the same sensibility to the gay pleasures and amusements of life in a clergyman which we lay our account with in an officer. The man, whose peculiar occupation it is to keep the world in mind of that awful futurity which awaits them, who is to anounce what may be the fatal consequences of every deviation from the rules of duty, and who is himself to set the example of the most exact conformity, is the messenger of tidings, which cannot, in propriety, be delivered either with levity or indifference. His mind is continually occupied with what is too grand and solemn, to leave any room for the impressions of those frivolous objects, which fill up the attention of the dissipated and the gay. We readily feel therefore, that, independent of custom, there is a propriety in the manners which custom has allotted to this profession; and that nothing can be more suitable to the character of a clergyman, than that grave, that austere and abstracted severity, which we are habituated to expect in his behaviour. These reflections are so very obvious, that there is scarce any man so inconsiderate, as not, at some time, to have made them, and to have accounted to himself in this manner for his approbation of the usual character of this order.
(pp. 391-3; cf. pp. 202-3 in Liberty Fund ed.)",,24022,"","""His mind is continually occupied with what is too grand and solemn, to leave any room for the impressions of those frivolous objects, which fill up the attention of the dissipated and the gay.""",Impressions,2014-06-19 18:08:15 UTC,""
5073,"",Reading,2014-06-19 20:00:21 UTC,"It may be true, perhaps, of some of them, that they tend in some measure to break the ballance of the affections, and to give the mind a particular biass to some principles of action beyond the proportion that is due to them. The antient systems, which place virtue in propriety, seem chiefly to recommend the great, the awful and the respectable virtues, the virtues of self-government and self-command; fortitude, magnanimity, independency upon fortune, the contempt of all outward accidents, of pain, poverty, exile and death. It is in these great exertions that the noblest propriety of conduct is displayed. The soft, the amiable, the gentle virtues, all the virtues of indulgent humanity are in comparison but little insisted upon, and seem on the contrary, by the Stoics in particular, to have been often regarded as meer weaknesses which it behoved a wise man not to harbour in his breast.
(pp. 470-1; cf. p. 306 in Liberty Fund ed.)",,24049,"","""The soft, the amiable, the gentle virtues, all the virtues of indulgent humanity are in comparison but little insisted upon, and seem on the contrary, by the Stoics in particular, to have been often regarded as meer weaknesses which it behoved a wise man not to harbour in his breast.""","",2014-06-19 20:00:21 UTC,""