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,""
4610,Train of ideas,Past Masters,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"And indeed, when we consider how aptly natural and moral evidence cement together, and form only one chain of argument betwixt them, we shall make no scruple to allow, that they are of the same nature, and derived from the same principles. A prisoner, who has neither money nor interest discovers the impossibility of his escape, as well from the obstinacy of the jailer, as from the walls and bars with which he is surrounded; and in all attempts for his freedom, chooses rather to work upon the stone and iron of the one, than upon the inflexible nature of the other. The same prisoner, when conducted to the scaffold, foresees his death as certainly from the constancy and fidelity of his guards, as from the operation of the axe or wheel. His mind runs along a certain train of ideas: the refusal of the soldiers to consent to his escape; the action of the executioner; the separation of the head and body, bleeding, convulsive motions, and death. Here is a connected chain of natural causes and voluntary actions; but the mind feels no difference betwixt them in passing from one link to another; nor is less certain of the future event than if it were connected with the present impressions of the memory and senses by a train of causes cemented together by what we are pleased to call a physical necessity. The same experienced union has the same effect on the mind , whether the united objects be motives, volitions, and actions, or figure and motion. We may change the names of things, but their nature and their operation on the understanding never change.
(II.iii.1)",2012-01-28,12145,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY. Hume's setpiece of the executed prisoner is chilling... ,"""Here is a connected chain of natural causes and voluntary actions; but the mind feels no difference betwixt them in passing from one link to another.""",Fetters,2012-01-30 18:23:14 UTC,""
4802,"","Searching ""mind"" in Liberty Fund OLL",2005-08-18 00:00:00 UTC,"If we attend to that Curiosity, or prodigious Thirst of Knowledge, which is natural to the Mind in every Period of its Progress, and consider withal the endless Round of Business and Care, and the various Hardships to which the Bulk of Mankind are chained down, it is evident, that in this present State, it is imposible to expect the Gratification of an Appetite at once so insatiable and so noble. Our Senses, the ordinary Organs by which Knowledge is let into the Mind, are always imperfect and often fallacious; the Advantages of assisting, or correcting them, are possessed by few; the Difficulties of finding out Truth amidst the various and contradictory Opinions, Interests, and Passions of Mankind, are many; and the Wants of the Creature, and of those with whom he is connected, numerous and urgent; so that it may be said of most Men, that their intellectual Organs are as much shut up and secluded from proper Nourishment and Exercise in that little Circle to which they are confined, as the bodily Organs are in the Womb. Nay, those who to an aspiring Genius have added all the Assistances of Art, Leisure, and the most liberal Education, what narrow Prospects can even they take of this unbounded Scene of Things from that little Eminence on which they stand? And how eagerly do they still grasp at new Discoveries, without any Satisfaction or Limit to their Ambition?
(pp. 155-6)",2011-10-10,12810,"","""If we attend to that Curiosity, or prodigious Thirst of Knowledge, which is natural to the Mind in every Period of its Progress, and consider withal the endless Round of Business and Care, and the various Hardships to which the Bulk of Mankind are chained down, it is evident, that in this present State, it is imposible to expect the Gratification of an Appetite at once so insatiable and so noble.""",Fetters,2011-10-10 16:52:17 UTC,Book III
4873,"",Reading,2011-03-07 17:25:29 UTC,"I suppose, if Cicero were now alive, it would be found difficult to fetter his moral sentiments by narrow systems; or persuade him, that no qualities were to be admitted as virtues, or acknowledged to be a part of personal merit, but what were recommended by The Whole Duty of Man.
(p. 319n)",2011-06-26,18220,"","""I suppose, if Cicero were now alive, it would be found difficult to fetter his moral sentiments by narrow systems; or persuade him, that no qualities were to be admitted as virtues, or acknowledged to be a part of personal merit, but what were recommended by The Whole Duty of Man.""",Fetters,2011-05-27 14:50:28 UTC,Appendix IV
5345,"",Searching in Google Books,2011-09-29 17:15:37 UTC,"It is strange to observe, with what reluctance some people acknowledge the power of instinct. That man is governed by reason, and the brutes by instinct, is a favourite topic with some philosophers; who, like other froward children, spurn the hand that leads them, and desire, above all things, to be left at their own disposal. Were this boast founded in truth, it might be supposed to mean little more, than that man is governed by himself, and the brutes by their Maker. But, luckily for man, it is not founded in truth, but in ignorance, inattention, and self-conceit. Our instincts, as well as our rational powers, are far superior, both in number and dignity, to those which the brutes enjoy; and it were well for us, on many occasions, if we laid our systems aside, and were more attentive in observing these impulses of nature in which reason has no part. Far be it from me to speak with disrespect of any of the gifts of God; every work of his is good; but the best things, when abused, may become pernicious. Reason is a noble faculty, and when kept within its proper sphere, and applied to useful purposes, proves a mean of exalting human creatures almost to the rank of superior beings. But this faculty has been much perverted, often to vile, and often to insignificant purposes; sometimes chained like a slave or malefactor, and sometimes soaring in forbidden and unknown regions. No wonder, then, if it hath been frequently made the instrument of seducing and bewildering mankind, and of rendering philosophy contemptible.
(I.i, p. 47-8)",,19240,"Note, Beattie elsewhere includes anti-slavery arguments in this nominally ""philosophical"" work. ","""But this faculty [Reason] has been much perverted, often to vile, and often to insignificant purposes; sometimes chained like a slave or malefactor, and sometimes soaring in forbidden and unknown regions.""",Fetters,2011-09-29 17:15:37 UTC,"Part I, Chap. i"
7187,"",Reading in the British Library,2012-02-08 05:12:05 UTC,"[...] But in its Advances, and final Perfection and Consummation, it discovers itself to be a Faculty, Quality, or inherent Power in the Soul, whereby it will act: without Solicitation, Motive or Direction. As a Stone in a Wall, fastened with Mortar, compressed by surrounding Stones, and involved in a Million of other Attractions, cannot fall to the Earth, nor sensibly exert its natural Gravity, no, not so much as to discover there is such a Principle in it; just so, the intelligent Soul, in this her lapsed Estate, being drowned in Sense, chained and fettered by Ignorance and Perverseness, drawn and hurried away by the Devil, the World and the Flesh, is disabled from exerting this inherent and innate Principle of Re-union, and wants sufficient Light on the Understanding, and a right Turn of the Will, to be put in a Capacity of exercising it. But in its proper Vacuity, and being freed from these Letts and Impediments, it would mount towards its Original, like an Eagle toward the Sun. Amiability, Pulchritude or Beauty, is as much the peculiar and proper Object of this Affection of the Mind, as Light or a luminous Body is of Vision; for Deformity, as such, can never be loved. And Beauty or Perfection, is, in Reality and just Philosophy, nothing but Analogy, Order, or just Proportion. From hence it necessarily follows, that in the Scale of Beings, all Objects ought to be loved in proportion to their Degree of Beauty, Symmetry or Perfection. And consequently, the highest Perfection ought to be loved with the highest Degree of Love, and the several subordinate Degrees of Perfection, with proportionate Degrees of this Affection of the Mind. And since Finite, when compared with Infinite, evanishes quite, or becomes nothing; it follows necessarily (since there is, and can be, but one Object that is Infinite, Good and Perfect, and all others are but Created, and Finite Goods; that is, in Comparison they are nothing) that, according to the eternal and immutable Laws of Analogy, the One supreme Good, endued with Infinite Perfection, ought to be loved with a Love infinitely superior to our Affections for other Things, or (which is the same Thing in other Words) that, in Comparison, our Love to the Author of our Being, ought to be infinite; and that to ourselves and other Objects, as being finite Creatures, none at all. This is the true Philosophy of this Matter, and as much a Demonstration, as any thing in Numbers or Geometry possibly can be; however it maybe received by Men of Self-Love and Carnal Minds.
(VI, pp. 163-5)",,19587,"","""As a Stone in a Wall, fastened with Mortar, compressed by surrounding Stones, and involved in a Million of other Attractions, cannot fall to the Earth, nor sensibly exert its natural Gravity, no, not so much as to discover there is such a Principle in it; just so, the intelligent Soul, in this her lapsed Estate, being drowned in Sense, chained and fettered by Ignorance and Perverseness, drawn and hurried away by the Devil, the World and the Flesh, is disabled from exerting this inherent and innate Principle of Re-union, and wants sufficient Light on the Understanding, and a right Turn of the Will, to be put in a Capacity of exercising it.""",Fetters,2012-02-08 05:12:41 UTC,Chap. VI. Of the Passions
7498,"",C-H Lion,2013-07-01 18:38:11 UTC,"We observed likewise, that an EXEMPTION from the RULES and RESTRAINTS of Criticism, contributed greatly to the more remarkable display of original Poetic Genius in the first ages of society. Every species of original Genius delights to range at liberty, and especially original Poetic Genius, which abhors the fetters of Criticism, claims the privilege of the freeborn sons of Nature, and never relinquishes it without the utmost regret. This noble talent knows no law, and acknowledges none in the uncultivated ages of the world, excepting its own spontaneous impulse, which it obeys without control, and without any dread of the censure of Critics. The truth is, Criticism was never formed into a system, till Aristotle, that penetrating, and (to use an expression by which Voltaire characterises Mr Locke ) ""methodical Genius"" arose, who deduced his Poetics, not from his own imagination, but from his accurate observations on the Works of Homer, Sophocles, Æschylus, and Euripides. Let us observe the probable and natural effects which a strict adherence to the rules of Criticism will have on original Genius in Poetry. One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost reluctance, to quit, being intimidated by the apprehention of incurring censure. By this means, the irregular but noble boldness of Fancy is checked, the divine and impetuous ardor of Genius is, we do not say extinguished, but in a great measure suppressed, and many shining excellencies sacrificed to justness of design, and regular uniformity of execution.
(pp. 282-4)",,21397,"","""One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost reluctance, to quit, being intimidated by the apprehention of incurring censure.""",Fetters,2013-07-01 18:38:27 UTC,""
4610,"",Reading,2014-06-22 16:09:47 UTC,"'TIS evident the error of distinguishing power from its exercise proceeds not entirely from the scholastic doctrine of free-will, which, indeed, enters very little into common life, and has but small influence on our vulgar and popular ways of thinking. According to that doctrine, motives deprive us not of free-will, nor take away our power of performing or forbearing any action. But according to common notions a man has no power, where very considerable motives lie betwixt him and the satisfaction of his desires, and determine him to forbear what he wishes to perform. I do not think I have fallen into my enemies power, when I see him pass me in the streets with a sword by his side, while I am unprovided of any weapon. I know that the fear of the civil magistrate is as strong a restraint as any of iron, and that I am in as perfect safety as if he were chain'd or imprison'd. But when a person acquires such an authority over me, that not only there is no external obstacle to his actions; but also that he may punish or reward me as he pleases, without any dread of punishment in his turn, I then attribute a full power to him, and consider myself as his subject or vassal.
(pp. 65-6)",,24105,"","""I know that the fear of the civil magistrate is as strong a restraint as any of iron, and that I am in as perfect safety as if he were chain'd or imprison'd.""",Fetters and Metal,2014-06-22 16:09:47 UTC,""