id,comments,provenance,dictionary,created_at,reviewed_on,work_id,theme,context,updated_at,metaphor,text
12397,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2009-09-14 19:36:56 UTC,2004-11-22,4685,Dualism,I've included the complete poem,2013-06-04 15:10:00 UTC,"""I [the mind] did but step out, on some weighty affairs, / To visit last night, my good friends in the stars, / When, before I was got half as high as the moon, / You despatched Pain and Languor to hurry me down; / Vi & Armis they seized me, in midst of my flight, / And shut me in caverns as dark as the night.""","A DIALOGUE
Says Body to Mind, ''Tis amazing to see,
We're so nearly related yet never agree,
But lead a most wrangling strange sort of life,
As great plagues to each other as husband and wife.
The fault's all your own, who, with flagrant oppression,
Encroach every day on my lawful possession.
The best room in my house you have seized for your own,
And turned the whole tenement quite upside down,
While you hourly call in a disorderly crew
Of vagabond rogues, who have nothing to do
But to run in and out, hurry-scurry, and keep
Such a horrible uproar, I can't get to sleep.
There's my kitchen sometimes is as empty as sound,
I call for my servants, not one's to be found:
They are all sent out on your ladyship's errand,
To fetch some more riotous guests in, I warrant!
And since things are growing, I see, worse and worse,
I'm determined to force you to alter your course.'
Poor Mind, who heard all with extreme moderation,
Thought it now time to speak, and make her allegation:
''Tis I that, methinks, have most cause to complain,
Who am cramped and confined like a slave in a chain.
I did but step out, on some weighty affairs,
To visit last night, my good friends in the stars,
When, before I was got half as high as the moon,
You despatched Pain and Languor to hurry me down;
Vi & Armis they seized me, in midst of my flight,
And shut me in caverns as dark as the night.'
''Twas no more,' replied Body, 'than what you deserved;
While you rambled abroad, I at home was half starved:
And, unless I had closely confined you in hold,
You had left me to perish with hunger and cold.'
'I've a friend,' answers Mind, 'who, though slow, is yet sure,
And will rid me at last of your insolent power:
Will knock down your walls, the whole fabric demolish,
And at once your strong holds and my slavery abolish:
And while in your dust your dull ruins decay,
I'll snap off my chains and fly freely away.'
(p. 168)"
20387,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-06-05 19:37:37 UTC,,7399,"",Night the First,2013-06-05 19:37:37 UTC,"""While o'er my limbs Sleep's soft dominion spread, / What though my soul fantastic measures trod / O'er fairy fields; or mourn'd along the gloom / Of pathless woods; or, down the craggy steep / Hurl'd headlong, swam with pain the mantled pool; / Or scaled the cliff; or danced on hollow winds, / With antic shapes, wild natives of the brain?""","'Tis past conjecture; all things rise in proof:
While o'er my limbs Sleep's soft dominion spread,
What though my soul fantastic measures trod
O'er fairy fields; or mourn'd along the gloom
Of pathless woods; or, down the craggy steep
Hurl'd headlong, swam with pain the mantled pool;
Or scaled the cliff; or danced on hollow winds,
With antic shapes, wild natives of the brain?
Her ceaseless flight, though devious, speaks her nature
Of subtler essence than the trodden clod;
Active, aërial, towering, unconfined,
Unfetter'd with her gross companion's fall.
E'en silent Night proclaims my soul immortal:
E'en silent Night proclaims eternal day.
For human weal, Heaven husbands all events;
Dull sleep instructs, nor sport vain dreams in vain.
(ll. 91-106, p. 39 in CUP edition)"
20448,"",Reading,"",2013-06-06 15:34:08 UTC,,7402,"",Night the Fourth,2013-06-06 15:34:08 UTC,"""Though silent long, and sleeping ne'er so sound, / Smother'd with errors, and oppress'd with toys, / That heaven-commission'd hour no sooner calls / But from her cavern in the soul's abyss, / Like him they fable under Ætna whelm'd, / The goddess bursts in thunder and in flame, / Loudly convinces, and severely pains.""","O give it leave to speak; 'twill speak ere long,
Thy leave unask'd: Lorenzo, hear it now,
While useful its advice, its accent mild.
By the great edict, the divine decree,
Truth is deposited with man's last hour;
An honest hour, and faithful to her trust.
Truth, eldest daughter of the Deity!
Truth, of his council when he made the worlds;
Nor less, when he shall judge the worlds he made!
Though silent long, and sleeping ne'er so sound,
Smother'd with errors, and oppress'd with toys,
That heaven-commission'd hour no sooner calls
But from her cavern in the soul's abyss,
Like him they fable under Ætna whelm'd,
The goddess bursts in thunder and in flame,
Loudly convinces, and severely pains.
Dark demons I discharge, and hydra-stings:
The keen vibration of bright Truth--is hell:
Just definition! though by schools untaught.
Ye deaf to Truth, peruse this parson'd page,
And trust, for once, a prophet and a priest:
""Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.""
(ll. 821-842, p. 112 in CUP edition)"
20491,"",Reading,"",2013-06-10 19:53:16 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 19:53:16 UTC,"""I'll range the plenteous intellectual field; / And gather every thought of sovereign power, / To chase the moral maladies of man; / Thoughts which may bear transplanting to the skies, / Though natives of this coarse penurious soil; / Nor wholly wither there, where seraphs sing, / Refined, exalted, not annull'd, in heaven: / Reason, the sun that gives them birth, the same / In either clime, though more illustrious there.""","But Wisdom smiles when humbled mortals weep.
When Sorrow wounds the breast, as ploughs the glebe,
And hearts obdurate feel her softening shower;
Her seed celestial, then, glad Wisdom sows;
Her golden harvest triumphs in the soil.
If so, Narcissa ! welcome my Relapse:
I'll raise a tax on my calamity,
And reap rich compensation from my pain.
I'll range the plenteous intellectual field;
And gather every thought of sovereign power,
To chase the moral maladies of man;
Thoughts which may bear transplanting to the skies,
Though natives of this coarse penurious soil;
Nor wholly wither there, where seraphs sing,
Refined, exalted, not annull'd, in heaven:
Reason, the sun that gives them birth, the same
In either clime, though more illustrious there.
These, choicely cull'd, and elegantly ranged,
Shall form a garland for Narcissa 's tomb;
And, peradventure, of no fading flowers.
(ll. 274-293, p. 124 in CUP edition)"
20499,"",Reading,Writing,2013-06-10 20:12:48 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 20:13:06 UTC,"""We bleed, we tremble; we forget, we smile: / The mind turns fool before the cheek is dry. / Our quick-returning folly cancels all; / As the tide rushing rases what is writ / In yielding sands, and smooths the letter'd shore.""","Such, Britons! is the cause, to you unknown,
Or worse, o'erlook'd; o'erlook'd by magistrates,
Thus criminals themselves. I grant the deed
Is madness; but the madness of the heart.
And what is that? Our utmost bound of guilt.
A sensual, unreflecting life is big
With monstrous births, and Suicide, to crown
The black infernal brood. The bold to break
Heaven's law supreme, and desperately rush
Through sacred Nature's murder on their own,
Because they never think of death, they die.
'Tis equally man's duty, glory, gain,
At once to shun and meditate his end.
When by the bed of languishment we sit,
(The seat of wisdom! if our choice, not fate,)
Or o'er our dying friends in anguish hang,
Wipe the cold dew, or stay the sinking head,
Number their moments, and in every clock
Start at the voice of an eternity;
See the dim lamp of life just feebly lift
An agonizing beam, at us to gaze,
Then sink again, and quiver into death,
That most pathetic herald of our own:---
How read we such sad scenes? as sent to man
In perfect vengeance? No; in pity sent,
To melt him down, like wax, and then impress,
Indelible, Death's image on his heart;
Bleeding for others, trembling for himself.
We bleed, we tremble; we forget, we smile:
The mind turns fool before the cheek is dry.
Our quick-returning folly cancels all;
As the tide rushing rases what is writ
In yielding sands, and smooths the letter'd shore.
(ll. 483-515, pp. 129-130 in CUP edition)"
20505,"",Reading,"",2013-06-10 20:44:31 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 20:44:31 UTC,"""Our needful knowledge, like our needful food, / Unhedged, lies open in life's common field, / And bids all welcome to the vital feast.""","But you are learn'd; in volumes deep you sit,
In wisdom shallow. Pompous ignorance!
Would you be still more learned than the learn'd?
Learn well to know how much need not be known,
And what that knowledge which impairs your sense.
Our needful knowledge, like our needful food,
Unhedged, lies open in life's common field,
And bids all welcome to the vital feast.
You scorn what lies before you in the page
Of Nature and Experience,--moral truth,
Of indispensable, eternal fruit;
Fruit on which mortals, feeding, turn to gods,--
And dive in science for distinguish'd names,
Dishonest fomentation of your pride,
Sinking in virtue as you rise in fame.
Your learning, like the lunar beam, affords
Light, but not heat; it leaves you undevout,
Frozen at heart, while speculation shines.
Awake, ye curious indagators, fond
Of knowing all, but what avails you known.
If you would learn Death's character, attend.
All casts of conduct, all degrees of health,
All dies of fortune, and all dates of age,
Together shook in his impartial urn,
Come forth at random; or, if choice is made,
The choice is quite sarcastic, and insults
All bold conjecture and fond hopes of man.
What countless multitudes not only leave
But deeply disappoint us by their deaths!
Though great our sorrow, greater our surprise.
(ll. 735-764, pp. 135-6 in CUP edition)"
20507,"",Reading,"",2013-06-10 20:46:36 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 20:46:36 UTC,"""Sure as night follows day, / Death treads in Pleasure's footsteps round the world, / When Pleasure treads the paths which Reason shuns.""","The dreadful masquerader, thus equipp'd,
Out-sallies on adventures. Ask you where?
Where is he not? For his peculiar haunts
Let this suffice:--Sure as night follows day,
Death treads in Pleasure's footsteps round the world,
When Pleasure treads the paths which Reason shuns.
When against Reason Riot shuts the door,
And Gaiety supplies the place of Sense,
Then foremost, at the banquet and the ball,
Death leads the dance, or stamps the deadly die:
Nor ever fails the midnight bowl to crown.
Gaily carousing to his gay compeers,
Inly he laughs to see them laugh at him,
As absent far; and when the revel burns,
When Fear is banish'd, and triumphant Thought,
Calling for all the joys beneath the moon,
Against him turns the key, and bids him sup
With their progenitors,--he drops his mask,
Frowns out at full; they start, despair, expire.
(ll. 860-878, pp. 138-9 in CUP edition)"
23359,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,"",2014-02-05 21:55:13 UTC,,4702,"",Introduction,2014-02-05 21:55:13 UTC,"""Yet all Persons are under some Obligation to improve their own Understanding, otherwise it will be a barren Desart, or a Forest overgrown grown with Weeds and Brambles.""","No Man is obliged to learn and know every Thing; this can neither be sought or required, for 'tis utterly impossible: Yet all Persons are under some Obligation to improve their own Understanding, otherwise it will be a barren Desart, or a Forest overgrown grown with Weeds and Brambles. Universal Ignorance or infinite Errors will overspread the Mind, which is utterly neglected and lies without any Cultivation.
(pp. 1-2)"
23366,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,"",2014-02-05 22:03:15 UTC,,4702,"","",2014-02-05 22:03:15 UTC,"""Their Understandings are hereby cooped up in narrow Bounds, so that they never look abroad into other Provinces of the intellectual World, which are more beautiful perhaps and more fruitful than their own.""","X. SUFFER not any beloved Study to prejudice your Mind so far in favour of it as to despise all other Learning. This is a Fault of some little Souls who have got a smattering of Astronomy, Chemistry, Metaphysicks, History, &c. and for want of a due Acquaintance with other Sciences make a Scoff at them all in comparison of their favourite Science. Their Understandings are hereby cooped up in narrow Bounds, so that they never look abroad into other Provinces of the intellectual World, which are more beautiful perhaps and more fruitful than their own: If they would search a little into other Sciences, they might not only find Treasures of new Knowledge, but might be furnished also with rich Hints of Thought and glorious Assistances to cultivate that very Province to which they have confined themselves.
(pp. 204-5)"
24141,REVISIT for soliloquy project: tongue metaphorically silent.,Reading at Folger; text from ECCO-TCP.,Empire,2014-07-03 14:51:49 UTC,,7959,"","",2014-07-03 14:53:14 UTC,"""TRAGEDY and COMEDY; the first fixes her Empire on the Passions, and the more exalted Contractions and Dilations of the Heart; the last, tho' not inferior (quotidem Science) holds her Rule over the less enobled Qualities and Districts of human Nature, which are call'd the Humours.""","THERE are Two different Kinds of Exhibitions, viz. TRAGEDY and COMEDY; the first fixes her Empire on the Passions, and the more exalted Contractions and Dilations of the Heart; the last, tho' not inferior (quotidem Science) holds her Rule over the less enobled Qualities and Districts of human Nature, which are call'd the Humours: Now in some Cases, Passions are Humours, and Humours Passions; for the Revenges of an Alexander and a Haberdasher, may have the same Fountain, and differ only in their Currents, and tho' the one (Alexander) cannot content himself but with the total Subversion of his Enemy's Kingdom, and the other (the Haberdasher) is satisfy'd with rolling his Antagonist in the Kennel; yet, still it is Revenge, the Mind of one is equally affected in Proportion to the other, and all the Difference lies in the different Ways of satisfying their common Passion. But now to the Application▪ and Design in Hand. If an Actor, and a favourite Actor, in assuming these different Characters with the same Passions, shall unskilfully differ only in Dress, and not in Execution; and supposing him right in One, and of Consequence absolutely ridiculous in the Other. Shall this Actor, I say, in Spite of Reason, Physicks, and common Observation, be caress'd, applauded, admir'd? But to illustrate it more by Example.--Suppose the Murder of Duncan, and the Breaking a Urinal shall affect the Player in the same Manner, and the only Difference is the blue Apron and lac'd Coat, shall we be chill'd at the Murderer, and roar at the Tobacconist? Fie for Shame!--As the One must be absolutely the Reverse of Right, I think the Publick, for so gross an Imposition, should drive both off the Stage. When Drugger becomes Macbeth, and Macbeth Drugger, I feel for the Manes of the Immortal Shakespear, and Inimitable Ben; I bemoan the Taste of my Country, and I would have the Buffoon sacrific'd to appease the Muses, and restore to us a true Dramatick Taste, by such an examplary Piece of Justice. I shall now, as relative to my my present Subject, describe in what Manner the two abovemention'd Characters ought to be mentally and corporeally Agitated, under the different Circumstances of the Dagger, and Urinal; and by that shall more fully delineate what is meant by Passions and Humours. When Abel Drugger has broke the Urinal, he is mentally absorb'd with the different Ideas of the invaluable Price of the Urinal, and the Punishment that may be inflicted in Consequence of a Curiosity, no way appertaining or belonging to the Business he came about. Now, if this, as it certainly is, the Situation of his Mind, How are the different Members of the Body to be agitated? Why Thus,--His Eyes must be revers'd from the Object he is most intimidated with, and by dropping his Lip at the some Time to the Object, it throws a trembling Languor upon every Muscle, and by declining the right Part of the Head towards the Urinal, it casts the most comic Terror and Shame over all the upper Part of the Body, that can be imagin'd; and to make the lower Part equally ridiculous, his Toes must be inverted from the Heel, and by holding his Breath, he will unavoidably give himself a Tremor in the Knees, and if his Fingers, at the same Time, seem convuls'd, it finishes the compleatest low Picture of Grotesque Terror that can be imagin'd by a Dutch Painter.--Let this be compar'd with the modern Copies, and then let the Town judge.--Now to Macbeth.--When the Murder of Duncan is committed, from an immediate Consciousness of the Fact, his Ambition is ingulph'd at that Instant, by the Horror of the Deed; his Faculties are intensely rivited to the Murder alone, without having the least Consolation of the consequential Advantages, to comfort him in that Exigency. He should at that Time, be a moving Statue, or indeed a petrify'd Man; his Eyes must Speak, and his Tongue be metaphorically Silent; his Ears must be sensible of imaginary Noises, and deaf to the present and audible Voice of his Wife; his Attitudes must be quick and permanent; his Voice articulately trembling, and confusedly intelligible; the Murderer should be seen in every Limb, and yet every Member, at that Instant, should seem separated from his Body, and his Body from his Soul: This is the Picture of a compleat Regicide, and as at that Time the Orb below should be hush as death; I hope I shall not be thought minutely circumstantial, if I should advise a real Genius to wear Cork Heels to his Shoes, as in this Scene he should seem to tread on Air, and I promise him he will soon discover the great Benefit of this (however seeming trifling) Piece of Advice.
(pp. 5-9)"