work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4167,Blank Slate,"Reading Kenneth Maclean, John Locke and English Literature of the Eighteenth Century (New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), p. 34. Found again searching.",2005-03-27 00:00:00 UTC,"When Man with Reason dignify'd is born,
No Images his naked Mind adorn:
No Sciences or Arts enrich his Brain,
Nor Fancy yet displays her pictur'd Train.
He no Innate Ideas can discern
Of Knowledge destitute, tho' apt to learn.
Our Intellectual, like the Body's Eye,
Whilst in the Womb, no Object can descry;
Yet is dispos'd to entertain the Light,
And judge of Things when offer'd to the Sight.
When Objects thro' the Senses Passage gain,
And fill with various Imag'ry the Brain,
Th' Ideas, which the Mind does thence perceive,
To Think and Know the first Occasion give.
Did she not use the Senses Ministry,
Nor ever Taste, or Smell, or Hear, or See,
Cou'd she possest of Pow'r perceptive be?
Wretches, who sightless into Being came,
Of Light or Colour no Idea frame.
Then grant a Man his Being did commence,
Deny'd by Nature each external Sense,
These Ports unopen'd, diffident we guess,
Th' unconscious Soul no Image could possess.
Tho' what in such a State the restless Train
Of Spirits would produce, we ask in vain.
The Mind proceeds, and to Reflection goes,
Perceives she does Perceive, and knows she Knows.
Reviews her Acts, and does from thence conclude
She is with Reason and with Choice endu'd.
(VII, ll. 228-256, pp. 324-6)",,10761,"•I've included twice: Images and Naked
•Maclean cites this as an example of a contemporary reference ""in which the notion of tabula rasa is intended, though none of the familiar figures are employed"" (34). ","""When Man with Reason dignify'd is born, / No Images his naked Mind adorn: / No Sciences or Arts enrich his Brain, / Nor Fancy yet displays her pictur'd Train.""","",2016-05-11 18:46:32 UTC,Book VII
4167,"Mind's Eye, Lockean Philosophy",Searching in HDIS Poetry,2005-03-27 00:00:00 UTC,"When Man with Reason dignify'd is born,
No Images his naked Mind adorn:
No Sciences or Arts enrich his Brain,
Nor Fancy yet displays her pictur'd Train.
He no Innate Ideas can discern
Of Knowledge destitute, tho' apt to learn.
Our Intellectual, like the Body's Eye,
Whilst in the Womb, no Object can descry;
Yet is dispos'd to entertain the Light,
And judge of Things when offer'd to the Sight.
When Objects thro' the Senses Passage gain,
And fill with various Imag'ry the Brain,
Th' Ideas, which the Mind does thence perceive,
To Think and Know the first Occasion give.
Did she not use the Senses Ministry,
Nor ever Taste, or Smell, or Hear, or See,
Cou'd she possest of Pow'r perceptive be?
Wretches, who sightless into Being came,
Of Light or Colour no Idea frame.
Then grant a Man his Being did commence,
Deny'd by Nature each external Sense,
These Ports unopen'd, diffident we guess,
Th' unconscious Soul no Image could possess.
Tho' what in such a State the restless Train
Of Spirits would produce, we ask in vain.
The Mind proceeds, and to Reflection goes,
Perceives she does Perceive, and knows she Knows.
Reviews her Acts, and does from thence conclude
She is with Reason and with Choice endu'd.
(VII, ll. 228-256, pp. 324-6)",,10763,. ,"""Our Intellectual, like the Body's Eye, / Whilst in the Womb, no Object can descry; /
Yet is dispos'd to entertain the Light, / And judge of Things when offer'd to the Sight.""",Eye,2013-08-07 14:17:22 UTC,""
4204,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-03-07 00:00:00 UTC,"Beneath; mishapen Chaos, and the Field
Of fighting Atoms, where hot, moist and dry,
Wage an eternal War with dismal Roar;
The dismal Roar breaks smoothly on the Ground,
Sacred to horror, and eternal Night:
Here Silence sits, whose visionary Shape
In Folds of wreathy mantling sinks obscure
And in dark Fumes reclines his drowsy head;
An Urn he holds, from whence a Lake proceeds,
Wide, flowing gently, smooth, and Lethe nam'd:
Hither compell'd, each Soul must drink long Draughts
Of those forgetful Streams, 'till Forms within,
And all the great Ideas fade and die:
For if vast Thoughts shou'd play about a Mind
Inclos'd in Flesh, and dregging cumbrous Life,
Fluttering and beating in the mournful Cage,
It soon wou'd break its Grates and wing away:
'Tis therefore my Decree, the Soul return
Naked from off this Beach and perfect Blank,
To visit the New World; and strait to feel
Itself, in crude consistence closely shut,
The dreadful Monument of just Revenge;
Immur'd by Heaven's own Hand, and plac'd erect
On fleeting Matter, all imprison'd round
With Walls of Clay; th' Æthereal Mould shall bear
The Chain of Members, deafen'd with an Ear,
Blinded by Eyes, and manacl'd in Hands.
Here Anger, vast Ambition, and Disdain,
And all the haughty Movements rise and fall,
As Storms of neighbouring Atoms tear the Soul;
And Hope, and Love, and all the calmer turns
Of easy Hours, in their gay gilded Shapes,
With sudden run, skin o'er deluded Minds,
As matter leads the Dance; but one Desire
Unsatisfied, shall marr ten thousand Joys.
(pp. 12-4, ll. 180-214)",,10903,•I've included twice: Naked and Blank,"The Soul returns ""Naked from off this Beach and perfect Blank, / To visit the New World""","",2009-09-14 19:35:22 UTC,""
4255,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-05-04 00:00:00 UTC," But when the great Apostate's Art
Seduc'd the wav'ring Creature's Heart,
Man from his happy Region fell
To the destructive Gulph of Death and Hell;
Now Guilt's infernal Gloom, and horrid Night,
O'erwhelm his Intellectual Sight,
And Clouds, with Vengeance stor'd, his trembling Soul affright.
Darkness, like that in Central Caves beneath,
Like that, which spreads the lonesome Walks of Death,
Where never Ray one Inroad made,
The Rebels Mind did swift invade.
The Light, which he enjoy'd, abus'd withdrew,
And back to Heav'n, its Parent, flew.
His Breast of this Celestial Guest bereft,
Became a Den of salvage Passions, left
Without a Keeper, loose and unconfin'd,
Which now no Guide directs, nor Precepts bind.",,11086,"","""Guilt's infernal Gloom, and horrid Night"" may ""O'erwhelm [Man's] Intellectual Sight""","",2009-09-14 19:35:33 UTC,Stanza IX
4167,"","Searching ""fig."" in OED.",2011-05-04 16:11:10 UTC,"Sages remark, we labour not to show
The Will is free, but that the Man is so.
For what inlighten'd Reas'ner can declare
What Human Will and Understanding are?
What Science from those Objects can we frame
Of which we little know, besides the Name?
The Learned, who with Anatomic Art
Dissect the Mind, and thinking Substance part,
And various Pow'rs and Faculties assert;
Perhaps by such Abstraction of the Mind
Divide the Things, that are in Nature joyn'd.
What Masters of the Schools can make it clear
Those Faculties, which Two to them appear,
Are not residing in the Soul the same,
And not distinct, but by a diff'rent Name?
(VII, ll. 554-568, pp. 345-6)",,18362,p. 228 in Google Books 1715 ed.,"""The Learned, who with Anatomic Art / Dissect the Mind, and thinking Substance part, / And various Pow'rs and Faculties assert; / Perhaps by such Abstraction of the Mind / Divide the Things, that are in Nature joyn'd.""",Anatomy,2013-08-07 16:16:44 UTC,Book VII
4353,"",Reading,2011-07-18 18:37:48 UTC,"UNHAPPY Man! Who thro' successive Years
From early Youth to Life's last Childhood Errs;
No sooner Born, but proves a Foe to Truth;
For Infant Reason is o'er power'd in Youth:
The Cheats of Sense will half our Learning share;
And Pre-Conceptions all our Knowledge are.
Reason, 'tis true, shou'd over Sense Preside,
Correct our Notions, and our Judgment Guide;
But false Opinions, rooted in the Mind,
Hoodwink the Soul, and keep our Reason Blind.
Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns,
A languid Flame that glows and dyes by Turns;
We see't a while, and but a little Way,
We Travel by its Light as Men by Day.
But quickly Dying, it forsakes us soon,
Like Morning Stars, that never stay till Noon.
(pp. 3-4)",,18905,"","""Reason, 'tis true, shou'd over Sense Preside, / Correct our Notions, and our Judgment Guide; / But false Opinions, rooted in the Mind, / Hoodwink the Soul, and keep our Reason Blind.""","",2011-07-18 18:37:48 UTC,""