text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"From the description of inanimate bodies and plants I went on to describe animals, and in particular men. But I did not yet have sufficient knowledge to speak of them in the same manner as I did of the other things - that is, by demonstrating effects from causes and showing from what seeds and in what manner nature must produce them. So I contented myself with supposing that God formed the body of a man exactly like our own both in the outward shape of its limbs and in the internal arrangement of its organs, using for its composition nothing but the matter that I had described. I supposed, too, that in the beginning God did not place in this body any rational soul or any other thing to serve as a vegetative or sensitive soul, but rather that he kindled in its heart one of those fires without light which I had already explained, and whose nature I understood to be no different from that of the fire which heats hay when it has been stored before it is dry, or which causes new wine to seethe when it is left to ferment from the crushed grapes. And when I looked to see what functions would occur in such a body I found precisely those which may occur in us without our thinking of them, and hence without any contribution from our soul (that is, from that part of us, distinct from the body, whose nature, as I have said previously, is simply to think). These functions are just the ones in which animals without reason may be said to resemble us. But I could find none of the functions which, depending on thought, are the only ones that belong to us as men; though I found all these later on, once I had supposed that God created a rational soul and joined it to this body in a particular way which I described.
(Part Five, p. 134)",2009-12-12 18:26:30 UTC,"""I supposed, too, that in the beginning God did not place in this body any rational soul or any other thing to serve as a vegetative or sensitive soul, but rather that he kindled in its heart one of those fires without light which I had already explained, and whose nature I understood to be no different from that of the fire which heats hay when it has been stored before it is dry, or which causes new wine to seethe when it is left to ferment from the crushed grapes.""",2003-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,Part Five,Elements,,"",•Literal...? REVISIT
,Past Masters; MacDonald's History of the Concept of Mind (281),9229,3562
"I am, then, in the strict sense only a thing that thinks; that is, I am a mind, or intelligence, or intellect, or reason - words whose meaning I have been ignorant of until now. But for all that I am a thing which is real and which truly exists. But what kind of a thing? As I have just said - a thinking thing.
What else am I? I will use my imagination. I am not that structure of limbs which is called a human body. I am not even some thin vapour which permeates the limbs - a wind, fire, air, breath, or whatever I depict in my imagination; for these are things which I have supposed to be nothing. Let this supposition stand; for all that I am still something. And yet may it not perhaps be the case that these very things which I am supposing to be nothing, because they are unknown to me, are in reality identical with the 'I' of which I am aware? I do not know, and for the moment I shall not argue the point, since I can make judgements only about things which are known to me. I know that I exist; the question is, what is this 'I' that I know? If the 'I' is understood strictly as we have been taking it, then it is quite certain that knowledge of it does not depend on things of whose existence I am as yet unaware; so it cannot depend on any of the things which I invent in my imagination. And this very word 'invent' shows me my mistake. It would indeed be a case of fictitious invention if I used my imagination to establish that I was something or other; for imagining is simply contemplating the shape or image of a corporeal thing. Yet now I know for certain both that I exist and at the same time that all such images and, in general, everything relating to the nature of body, could be mere dreams {and chimeras}. Once this point has been grasped, to say 'I will use my imagination to get to know more distinctly what I am' would seem to be as silly as saying 'I am now awake, and see some truth; but since my vision is not yet clear enough, I will deliberately fall asleep so that my dreams may provide a truer and clearer representation.' I thus realize that none of the things that the imagination enables me to grasp is at all relevant to this knowledge of myself which I possess, and that the mind must therefore be most carefully diverted from such things if it is to perceive its own nature as distinctly as possible.
(Second Meditation, p. 18-19)",2010-07-01 20:06:19 UTC,"""I am not that structure of limbs which is called a human body. I am not even some thin vapour which permeates the limbs - a wind, fire, air, breath, or whatever I depict in my imagination; for these are things which I have supposed to be nothing.""",2003-10-03 00:00:00 UTC,Second Meditation,Negated Metaphor,2004-01-24,"","•Fascinating anti-metaphorical moment. I am not.. ""thin vapour,"" ""wind,"" ""fire,"" ""air,"" ""breath,"" or whatever is depicted in the imagination. INTEREST.
•In fact, ""none of the things that the imagination enables me to grasp is at all relevant to this knowledge of myself which I possess""",Past Masters,9236,3568
"At these Words she rose from his Feet, and snatching him in her Arms, he cou'd not defend himself from receiving a thousand Kisses from the lovely Mouth of the charming Wanton; after which, she ran her self, and in an instant put out the Candles. But he cry'd to her, In vain, O too indiscreet fair One; in vain you put out the Light; for [Page 51] Heaven still has Eyes, and will look down upon my broken Vows. I own your Power, I own I have all the Sense in the World of your charming Touches; I am frail Flesh and Blood, but yet--yet--yet I can resist; and I prefer my Vows to all your powerful Temptations.--I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun.--Go, vain Wanton, and repent, and mortifie that Blood which has so shamefully betray'd thee, and which will one Day ruin both thy Soul and Body.--
(pp. 50-1)",2010-07-01 20:12:13 UTC,"""I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun.""",2005-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2010-07-01,"","•See also Aphra Behn. Oroonoko and other Writings. Ed. Paul Salzman. Oxford: OUP, 1994.
•I've included twice: Wall of Ice and Flame",Reading. Text from EEBO. http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A27305,9899,3853
"Such Miracles did his high Office prove,
And Universal Admiration move,
Of all the chiefest was his wondrous Love.
He whom rebellious Men might justly fear,
In all his chosen Terrors would appear,
With Military Pomp, and Trumpets sound,
His shining Host of Cherubs pour'd around;
Arm'd with keen Lightning, and the sharpest Sword,
That all his Magazins of Wrath afford,
To lay all Waste before him, and Efface
All Footsteps of Apostate Adam's Race,
He, unexampled Love! Attempts to win
Man from the Curse of Death, and Curse of Sin,
With Pity, more than that of Mothers Hearts,
With Mercy's Charms, and Love's persuasive Arts.
His high Design was with his Heav'nly Light,
To chase away th' Impenetrable Night,
That cover'd this lost World, and re-inspire
Man's frozen Breast, with fresh Celestial Fire.
Th' Almighty's faded Image to repair,
That its bright Lines might shine distinct and fair.
To raise laps'd Minds to that high State of Love,
Of Light and Bliss, the Blest enjoy above.
To pull all bold Usurping Passions down,
And settle Reason in its ancient Throne.
To break Sins heavy Chains, its Slaves release,
And fix 'twixt Earth and Heav'n a lasting Peace.
",2013-07-02 17:23:23 UTC,"""His high Design was with his Heav'nly Light, / To chase away th' Impenetrable Night, / That cover'd this lost World, and re-inspire / Man's frozen Breast with fresh Celestial Fire""",2004-07-15 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,"",•I've included twice: Liquid and Flame,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),10148,3916
"As to the Immortality of the Soul, In your Answer to the Lord Bishop of Worcester, you acknowledge the Deficiency or Limitation of your Principles as to the Proof of its Immateriality: but however, you do not freely tell us, what you make the Soul to be. You say indeed, 'tis a Thinking Substance; but so you say Matter may be made, for any thing you know, or any thing we know, by your Principles. Do you think the Soul to be a permanent Substance, distinct from the Body? or a Modification or Power of the Body? or Life onely? or a certain Influence from without, acting in Matter so and so qualified, or in such and such Systems? Which Dispositions or Systems, when they come to be dissolved or destroy'd, that Power ceases to act there; either perishing, as a Flame when the Fewel is spent; or returning to its Fountain, whatsoever it was. This Notion seems to me to suit best to the general Air of you Discourse about the Soul, and with several particular Passages relating to it. As when you make Cogitation in us to be like Motion in Matter, which receives its Motion from external Impression. And when you speak about the Sleep of the Soul, or the Suspension of Cogitation when we sleep; the Body not being then receptive of the Thinking Influence.
(pp. 13-4)",2009-09-14 19:34:47 UTC,"The soul may be a ""Modification or Power of the Body"" so that it eventually ceases to act, ""either perishing, as a Flame when the Fewel is spent; or returning to its Fountain, whatsoever it was""",2005-03-15 00:00:00 UTC,"",Lockean Philosophy,,"",•I've included twice: Flame and Fountain,Reading Burnet's three Remarks,10196,3932
" Whoe'er he was, he does my fancy move,
Who painted first the little God of Love.
Plainly he saw the senseless Lovers snare,
What solid good they lose, for empty care;
Thence did he Justly windy Wings impart,
And made the God fly with a humane Heart.
By Fortune's waves he knew us wildly tost,
While, by each dash, we may be wreck'd, and lost.
Justly he knew what the old Poets sung,
That from the Seas Love's Beauteous Mother sprung.
E'er since which time, unhappy Lovers see,
Their Passion ne'er can be from Tempests free.
It Ebbs and Flows, unfixt, not long the same,
A rowling Ocean of tumultuous Flame.
He feign'd him blind, with true design, to show
That every Lover, while he Loves, is so.
Justly indeed his Darts were bearded found,
For, what they hurt, can never be made sound;
And 'ere we see him, he is sure to wound.
My Breast his Arrows, and his Image boast,
But sure his Wings, with which he flies, are lost.
My Heart's his Throne, yet Rebel Passions Jar,
Which Fire my Veins, and thro' my Blood make War.
Why Cruel Love, should you the Tyrant Play?
By what pretence can you demand your sway?
But you have Pow'r, and I must still obey.
When I am gone, who shall your praises sing?
And my Light Muse can weighty glories bring.
",2012-02-09 16:22:39 UTC,"""E'er since which time, unhappy Lovers see, / Their Passion ne'er can be from Tempests free / It Ebbs and Flows, unfixt, not long the same, / A rowling Ocean of tumultuous Flame.""",2004-06-14 00:00:00 UTC,I've included the entire poem,"",2012-02-09,"",•I've included twice: Tempest and Ocean.,HDIS (Poetry),10287,3958
"Instead of those sage and grave Notions that used to fill my Head, 'twas cramm'd top full of Whimseys and Whirligigs, by the vehement agitation of my distemper'd Fancy, as ever a Carkase-shell with Instruments of Death and Murder. I was nothing but all Flame and Fire, and the red-hot Thoughts glared about my Brains at such a rate, and if visible, wou'd, I fancy, have made just such a dreadful Appearance as the Window of a Glass-house discovers in a dark Night--viz. a parcel of stragling fiery Globes marching about and hizzing, appearing and vanishing high and low, transverse, and every where--which at length in a few days blew up my Head like a Bottle, and I had a Fire as uninterrupted, and I think as hot as that we talk of, rolling all over me, boiling my very Bowels into Tripes, and frying my poor Heart in its own Water, till I fancy it looked like the broyl'd Soul of a Goose, or a piece of Cheese tosted over the Candle. When poor Evander drunk, as my Nurse knows that was not often, 'twas like the slaking of Iron in Water, or rather the Taylor's spitting upon his Goose, where the little drops of moisture only stink and sputter, and fly off agen; and I can hardly perswade my self but if any Virtuoso had out of curiosity listen'd at my Back-Door, they might have easily heard the small Beer and Posset-drink hizz within me, as it came down into my Bowels.
(II, pp. 42-3)",2013-06-19 01:34:25 UTC,"""I was nothing but all Flame and Fire, and the red-hot Thoughts glared about my Brains at such a rate, and if visible, wou'd, I fancy, have made just such a dreadful Appearance as the Window of a Glass-house discovers in a dark Night--viz. a parcel of stragling fiery Globes marching about and hizzing, appearing and vanishing high and low, transverse, and every where--which at length in a few days blew up my Head like a Bottle, and I had a Fire as uninterrupted, and I think as hot as that we talk of, rolling all over me, boiling my very Bowels into Tripes, and frying my poor Heart in its own Water, till I fancy it looked like the broyl'd Soul of a Goose, or a piece of Cheese tosted over the Candle.""",2013-06-19 01:34:25 UTC,"","",,Rooms,INTEREST. CRAZY METAPHOR.,C-H Lion,20984,7476
"But now I see by your assisting Light
I'm both Idolater, and Hypocrite.
How black and dismal do's my Crime appear?
How sharp the Stings of raging Conscience are?
Who can the Pangs and deadly Anguish bear?
O let my head a weeping Fountain grow,
And from my Eyes let mournful Rivers flow.
Let me dissolve to Tears, let every Vein
A stream of Water, not of Blood contain.
Thro' all the winding Channels to my Eyes
Let unexhausted Stores of Moisture rise.
Let no sufficient Treasures be deny'd
To feed the sad, but Everlasting Tide.
Let Love's strong Flame by its Celestial Art
To fill my Eyes, dissolve and melt my Heart;
As Central Fire advances watry Steams
Which from the Mountains spring in Crystal Streams.
Rivers and Seas I want for my Relief,
To Ease, and Vent unutterable Grief.
I, that my Tears may to a Deluge grow,
Will break my Stores up, my Abyss of Woe.
Descend my Tears, in Cataracts slow down,
Me, and my load of Guilt together drown.
Let mighty Torrents from my Eye-balls roll,
Fit to dilute th'Almighty's wrathful Bowl.
Lord, strike this Marble Heart, thy powerful Stroke
Will make a Flood gush from the cleaving Rock.
O draw all Nature's Sluces up, and drain
Her Magazines, which liquid Stores contain.
(Bk VIII, p. 230, ll. 774-802)",2013-07-02 19:06:02 UTC,"""Let Love's strong Flame by its Celestial Art / To fill my Eyes, dissolve and melt my Heart; / As Central Fire advances watry Steams / Which from the Mountains spring in Crystal Streams.""",2013-07-02 19:06:02 UTC,Book VIII,"",,"","",C-H Lion,21434,3938
"Secondly, when you have made the heart thus affected with sinne, then take heed that the heart doth not flie off and shake off the yoke. Imagine meditation brings all those sins, and miseries, and vilenesse, all are brought home to the heart, and the soule is made sensible by this meanes: Hold the heart there then, labour to keepe the heart in the same temper, that it is brought into, by the consideration of sinne, for this is our nature, when the strooke is troublesome that lieth upon us, and the sinnes are hainous that lie upon us, and are committed by us, these sinnes, these sorrowes, these judgements, when the heart feeles this, it is weary, and would secretly have the wound healed quickly, and the sorrow removed, and the trouble calmed: Take heede of this, and labour to maintaine that heat of heart, which you finde in your selves by vertue of meditation, this is the pitch of the point: as there must bee subjection unto meditation, the heart must be so affected with sinne, as it conceived it to be, so there must be attention; that is, the soule must hold it selfe to that frame and disposition so wrought as it should be. Looke as it is with a Gold smith that melteth the metall that he is to make a vessell of, if after the melting thereof, there follow a cooling, it had beene as good it had never beene melted, it is as hard, haply harder, as unfit, haply unfitter, then it was before to make vessell of; but after he hath melted it, he must keep it in that frame till he come to the moulding and fashoning of it: So meditation is like fire, the heart is like a vessell, the heart is made for God, and it may be made a vessell of grace here, and of glory hereafter: Now meditation, it is that melts the soule, the drosse must be taken away from the soule, and sinne must bee loosened from the heart: Now meditation doth this, it melts the soule, and affects the soule with the weight of sinne: now when you have your heart in some measure melted, keepe it there, doe not let it grow loose againe, and carelesse againe; for then you had as good never have beene melted: And that is the reason why many a poore sinner that hath sometime beene in a good way, and the Lord hath come kindly and wrought powerfully on the heart, and yet at last it hath grown cold & dumpish, & as hard as ever he was againe, and the worke is to beginne again. And take notice of it; looke as it is with the cure of the body, if a man have an old wound, and a deepe one; two things are observable; it is not enough to launce the wound, and draw out the corruptions, but it must be tented also, for if the wound be deepe, it must not be healed presently, but it must be kept open with a tent, that it may be healed soundly, and thoroughly: so it is here; meditation when it is set on, doth launce the soule, it launceth the heart of a man, and it will goe downe to the bottome of the belly: When a man seeth his sinne, and weigheth his sinne it will goe downe to the bottom sometime, and when your heart is thus affected, do not heale it too soone, but hold the soule in that blessed frame & disposition: For as meditation doth launce the soule, so attention doth tent the soule; keepe the soule therfore so troublesome and sorrowfull that so you may be healed soundly, thorowly, and comfortably.
(pp. 112-4)",2014-03-14 17:27:28 UTC,"""Looke as it is with a Gold smith that melteth the metall that he is to make a vessell of, if after the melting thereof, there follow a cooling, it had beene as good it had never beene melted, it is as hard, haply harder, as unfit, haply unfitter, then it was before to make vessell of; but after he hath melted it, he must keep it in that frame till he come to the moulding and fashoning of it: So meditation is like fire, the heart is like a vessell, the heart is made for God, and it may be made a vessell of grace here, and of glory hereafter: Now meditation, it is that melts the soule, the drosse must be taken away from the soule, and sinne must bee loosened from the heart: Now meditation doth this, it melts the soule, and affects the soule with the weight of sinne: now when you have your heart in some measure melted, keepe it there, doe not let it grow loose againe, and carelesse againe; for then you had as good never have beene melted: And that is the reason why many a poore sinner that hath sometime beene in a good way, and the Lord hath come kindly and wrought powerfully on the heart, and yet at last it hath grown cold & dumpish, & as hard as ever he was againe, and the worke is to beginne againe.""",2014-03-14 17:26:47 UTC,"","",,Metal,"","Reading Perry Miller's The New England Mind (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1954), 58.",23703,7855
"The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of Grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts Water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil: but in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that: So he had him about to the back side of the Wall, where he saw a Man with a Vessel of Oyl in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast, but secretly, into the fire. Then said Christian, What means this? The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually with the Oyl ofhis Grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; By the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of his People' prove gracious* still. And in that thou sawest, that the Man stood behind the Wall to maintain the fire; this is to teach thee, that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of Grace is maintained in the soul.
(pp. 25-26)",2014-09-02 15:26:11 UTC,"""The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of Grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts Water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil.""",2014-09-02 15:26:11 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,24429,8024