work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4167,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,"These Out-guards of the Mind are sent abroad,
And still patrolling beat the neighb'ring Road:
Or to the Parts remote obedient fly,
Keep Posts advanc'd, and on the Frontier lye.
The watchful Centinels at ev'ry Gate,
At ev'ry Passage to the Senses wait.
Still travel to and fro the Nervous way,
And their Impressions to the Brain convey,
Where their Report the Vital Envoys make,
And with new Orders are remanded back.
Quick, as a darted Beam of Light, they go,
Thro' diff'rent Paths to diff'rent Organs flow,
Whence they reflect as swiftly to the Brain,
To give it Pleasure, or to give it Pain.
(VI, ll. 670-683, pp. 305-6)",,10785,"","""Quick, as a darted Beam of Light, they [the spirits] go, / Thro' diff'rent Paths to diff'rent Organs flow, / Whence they reflect as swiftly to the Brain, / To give it Pleasure, or to give it Pain.""","",2013-08-07 14:47:22 UTC,Book VI
4167,Animal Spirits,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-06-13 00:00:00 UTC,"Where dwells this Sovereign Arbitrary Soul,
Which does the human Animal controul,
Inform each Part, and agitate the whole?
O'er Ministerial Senses does preside,
To all their various Provinces divide,
Each Member move, and ev'ry Motion guide.
Which by her secret uncontested Nod
Her Messengers the Spirits sends abroad,
Thro' ev'ry nervous Pass, and ev'ry vital Road.
To fetch from ev'ry distant Part a Train,
Of outward Objects to enrich the Brain.
Where sits this bright Intelligence enthron'd,
With numberless Ideas pour'd around?
Where Wisdom, Prudence, Contemplation stand,
And busie Fantoms watch her high Command:
Where Sciences and Arts in order wait,
And Truths Divine compose her Godlike State.
Can the dissecting Steel the Brain display,
And the august Apartment open lay,
Where this great Queen still chuses to reside
In Intellectual Pomp, and bright Ideal Pride?
Or can the Eye assisted by the Glass
Discern the strait, but hospitable Place,
In which ten thousand Images remain,
Without Confusion, and their Rank maintain?
(VII, ll. 303-327, pp. 329-30)",,10792,•I've included twice: Pass and Road,"""Which by her secret uncontested Nod / Her Messengers the Spirits sends abroad, / Thro' ev'ry nervous Pass, and ev'ry vital Road. / To fetch from ev'ry distant Part a Train, / Of outward Objects to enrich the Brain.""",Inhabitants,2013-08-07 15:17:13 UTC,Book VII
4171,Microcosm,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2006-01-18 00:00:00 UTC,"Causes remote from our Observance fly,
We have a nobler Object always nigh;
Man, lordly Creature! in whom Beauties meet,
Unnumber'd, and the lovely Frame complete.
Mark the nice Structure, and the wond'rous Art;
How just the whole, how curious ev'ry part.
By the Child's Features we the Parent guess,
And Looks divine an heav'nly Sire confess.
Man amiably Majestick Walks erect,
And from th'inferiour World commands Respect;
Reason curbs Force, and gives to Fury Laws,
And fiercest Creatures to Subjection Aws.
They conscious yield, and own the righteous Sway,
And their just Sovereign passively obey.
Man is the Universe, in little shown,
The scatter'd Beauties here are joyn'd in one,
In him the several Motions are explain'd,
And the great World is in the less contain'd.
For as th'Almighty's Throne is fix'd on high,
(Far from these lower Spheres, and arched Sky)
Where Seraphs, and Cherubic Orders stand,
Attend the Nod, and wait the blest Command;
Then with Angelic Motion swift obey,
And instantly themselves to farthest Worlds convey.
Thus seated in the Brain the reasoning Soul
Exalted sits, and there directs the whole.
At the least Hint the conscious Spirits start;
Loaden with Images from ev'ry part
In branched Tubes the subtle Atoms rome,
And from each Sense bring fresh Advices home.
The Immaterial Mind attends above,
While they inform how outward Objects move.
The God of Light sends down his streaming Rays
On the warm'd Earth, and chears with smiling Days.
And thus the central Heart the Source contains
Of vital Heat, and in its Cavern strains
The bubling Streams, that stretch the swelling Veins.
Still it conveys the swift returning Blood,
And restless thus maintains the circling Flood.
The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring succeed)
Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead:
The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep
O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep,
But buzzing Insects make an uncouth Noise,
And sulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies.
So when the Heart tumultuous Passions move,
If melting in the softer Flames of Love
With quicker Strokes the hasty Pulses beat,
And glowing Cheeks confess the inward Heat:
Or if fierce Rage provoke, and vengeful Ire,
The Eyes then sparkle with unusual Fire:
Ah! soon the Flames their rapid Fury spread,
And colour all with a malignant Red.
Curses and Oaths th'unthinking Wretch repeats,
And the Tongue faulters in half-utter'd Threats.
How like the Earth mix'd with the watry Mass,
Where troubled Seas the slimy Land embrace,
Are Man's less noble Parts, th'inferiour Drain,
Where forc'd the cruder Sediments remain?
Here stagnate Filth, and Acid worthless Lees,
And noisom Heaps from various Foods encrease.
Hence windy Fumes, and sudden Vapours spread,
That swell the Breast, and rack the aching Head,
Till forc'd by stronger Nature to retreat,
They melting fall, and all dissolve in Sweat:
Dispers'd in watry Drops they pain no more,
But work insensibly thro' ev'ry Pore.
And as the Sun by his own Heat exhales
Clouds from the Sea, and Fogs from marshy Vales;
Which (tho' base-born) ambitious higher move,
Prevent the Light, and hide the Worlds above.
So from corporeal Dregs the Mists condense,
And intercept the Messengers of Sense.
Hence the clog'd Spirits their Confinement mourn,
And Reason waits in vain the swift Return.
The clouded Images their March delay,
Till the rouz'd Soul, by a superiour Ray
Breaks thro' the Shade, and urges on the Day.",,10819,•I've included twice: Seasons and Mead
•Rich Passage. REVISIT. — A failed comparison?,"""The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring succeed) / Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead: / The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep / O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep, / But buzzing Insects make an uncouth Noise, / And sulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies. / So when the Heart tumultuous Passions move, / If melting in the softer Flames of Love / With quicker Strokes the hasty Pulses beat, / And glowing Cheeks confess the inward Heat.""","",2013-06-04 20:56:30 UTC,""
4179,"",Past Masters; and Reading,2004-02-24 00:00:00 UTC,"II THE PINEAL GLAND
No. 35. Tuesday, April 21
O vitae philosophia dux virtutis indagatrix!--CICERO.
TO NESTOR IRONSIDE, ESQ.
'Sir,
'I am a man who have spent great part of that time in rambling through foreign countries, which young gentlemen usually pass at the university; by which course of life, altho' I have acquired no small insight into the manners and conversation of men, yet I could not make proportionable advances in the way of science and speculation. In my return through France, as I was one day setting forth this my case to a certain gentleman of that nation with whom I had contracted a friendship, after some pause, he conducted me into his closet, and, opening a little amber cabinet, took from thence a small box of snuff, which he said was given him by an uncle of his, the author of The Voyage to the World of Descartes; and, with many professions of gratitude and affection, made me a present of it, telling me at the same time, that he knew no readier way to furnish and adorn a mind with knowledge in the arts and sciences than that same snuff rightly applied.
'You must know, said he, that Descartes was the first who discovered a certain part of the brain, called by anatomists the Pineal Gland, to be the immediate receptacle of the soul, where she is affected with all sorts of perceptions, and exerts all her operations by the intercourse of the animal spirits which run thro' the nerves that are thence extended to all parts of the body. He added, that the same philosopher having considered the body as a machine or piece of clockwork, which performed all the vital operations without the concurrence of the will, began to think a way may be found out for separating the soul for some time from the body, without any injury to the latter; and that, after much meditation on that subject, the above-mentioned virtuoso composed the snuff he then gave me; which, if taken in a certain quantity, would not fail to disengage my soul from my body. Your soul (continued he) being at liberty to transport herself with a thought wherever she pleases, may enter into the Pineal Gland of the most learned philosopher, and, being so placed, become spectator of all the ideas in his mind, which would instruct her in a much less time than the usual methods. I returned him thanks, and accepted his present, and with it a paper of directions.
'You may imagine it was no small improvement and diversion to pass my time in the Pineal Glands of philosophers, poets, beaux, mathematicians, ladies, and statesmen. One while to trace a theorem in mathematicks through a long labyrinth of intricate turns and subtilties of thought; another, to be conscious of the sublime ideas and comprehensive views of a philosopher, without any fatigue or wasting of my own spirits. Sometimes, to wander through perfumed groves, or enamelled meadows, in the fancy of a poet: At others, to be present when a battel or a storm raged, or a glittering palace rose in his imagination; or to behold the pleasures of a country life, the passion of a generous love, or the warmth of devotion wrought up to rapture. Or (to use the words of a very ingenious author) to
Behold the raptures which a writer knows,
When in his breast a vein of fancy glows,
Behold his business while he works the mine,
Behold his temper when he sees it shine.
'These gave me inconceivable pleasure. Nor was it an unpleasant entertainment sometimes to descend from these sublime and magnificent ideas to the impertinences of a beau, the dry schemes of a coffee-house politician, or the tender images in the mind of a young lady. And as, in order to frame a right idea of human happiness, I thought it expedient to make a trial of the various manners wherein men of different pursuits were affected; I one day entered into the Pineal Gland of a certain person who seemed very fit to give me an insight into all that which constitutes the happiness of him who is called a man of pleasure. But I found myself not a little disappointed in my notion of the pleasures which attend a voluptuary, who has shaken off the restraints of reason.
'His intellectuals, I observed, were grown unserviceable by too little use, and his senses were decayed and worn out by too much. That perfect inaction of the higher powers prevented appetite in prompting him to sensual gratifications; and the outrunning natural appetite produced a loathing instead of a pleasure. I there beheld the intemperate cravings of youth, without the enjoyments of it; and the weakness of old age, without its tranquility. When the passions were teized and roused by some powerful object, the effect was, not to delight or sooth the mind, but to torture it between the returning extreams of appetite and satiety. I saw a wretch racked, at the same time, with a painful remembrance of past miscarriages, a distaste of the present objects that sollicite his senses, and a secret dread of futurity. And I could see no manner of relief or comfort in the soul of this miserable man, but what consisted in preventing his cure, by inflaming his passions and suppressing his reason. But tho' it must be owned he had almost quenched that light which his Creator had set up in his soul, yet in spight of all his efforts, I observed at certain seasons frequent flashes of remorse strike thro' the gloom, and interrupt that satisfaction he enjoyed in hiding his own deformities from himself.
'I was also present at the original formation or production of a certain book in the mind of a Free-thinker, and, believing it may be not unacceptable to let you into the secret manner and internal principles by which that phaenomenon was formed, I shall in my next give you an account of it. I am, in the mean time,
'Your most obedient humble servant,
'ULYSSES COSMOPOLITA.'
N.B. Mr. Ironside has lately received out of France ten pound averdupoise weight of this philosophical snuff, and gives notice that he will make use of it, in order to distinguish the real from the professed sentiments of all persons of eminence in court, city, town, and country.
(Vol. 7, pp.185-7)",,10868,•The lines of poetry are from Parnell's Essay on the Different Stiles of Poetry. ,"""Sometimes, to wander through perfumed groves, or enamelled meadows, in the fancy of a poet.""","",2013-06-04 16:22:29 UTC,I've included the entire Guardian essay
4155,Animal Spirits,"Reading. Encountered again in Jayne Lewis's ""Dialectic of Bewilderment,"" Eighteenth-Century Fiction 31, no. 3 (Spring 2019): 575–595, 575.",2012-04-10 20:59:47 UTC,"Misom
Then you would have this variously disposing of the Images to be the work of the Spirits, that act under the Soul, as so many Labourers under some great Architect.
Phil.
I would so: And reflecting on what is transacted within us, it seems to me a very diverting Scene to think when we strive to recollect something that does not then occur; how nimbly those volatil Messengers of ours will beat through all the Paths, and hunt every Enclosure of the Organ set aside for thinking, in quest of the Images we want, and when we have forgot a Word or Sentence, which yet we are sure the great Treasury of Images received our Memory has once been charged with, we may almost feel how some of the Spirits flying through all the Mazes and Meanders rommage the whole substance of the Brain; whilst others ferret themselves into the inmost recesses of it with so much eagerness and labour, that the difficulty they meet with some times makes us uneasie, and they often bewilder themselves in their search, till at last they light by chance on the Image that contains what they look'd for, or else dragging it, as it were, by piece-meals from the dark Caverns of oblivion, represent what they can find of it to our Imagination.
(pp. 130-1)",,19677,RICH PASSAGE. INTEREST. REVISIT.,"""And reflecting on what is transacted within us, it seems to me a very diverting Scene to think when we strive to recollect something that does not then occur; how nimbly those volatil Messengers of ours will beat through all the Paths, and hunt every Enclosure of the Organ set aside for thinking, in quest of the Images we want, and when we have forgot a Word or Sentence, which yet we are sure the great Treasury of Images received our Memory has once been charged with, we may almost feel how some of the Spirits flying through all the Mazes and Meanders rommage the whole substance of the Brain; whilst others ferret themselves into the inmost recesses of it with so much eagerness and labour, that the difficulty they meet with some times makes us uneasie, and they often bewilder themselves in their search, till at last they light by chance on the Image that contains what they look'd for, or else dragging it, as it were, by piece-meals from the dark Caverns of oblivion, represent what they can find of it to our Imagination.""",Inhabitants,2020-07-14 18:00:25 UTC,""
7468,"","Searching ""mind"" in Project Gutenberg e-text.
",2013-06-17 19:34:06 UTC,"Now as to the peculiar Qualities of the Eye, that fine Part of our Constitution seems as much the Receptacle and Seat of our Passions, Appetites and Inclinations as the Mind it self; and at least it is the outward Portal to introduce them to the House within, or rather the common Thorough-fare to let our Affections pass in and out. Love, Anger, Pride, and Avarice, all visibly move in those little Orbs. I know a young Lady that can't see a certain Gentleman pass by without shewing a secret Desire of seeing him again by a Dance in her Eye-balls; nay, she can't for the Heart of her help looking Half a Street's Length after any Man in a gay Dress. You can't behold a covetous Spirit walk by a Goldsmith's Shop without casting a wistful Eye at the Heaps upon the Counter. Does not a haughty Person shew the Temper of his Soul in the supercilious Rowl of his Eye? and how frequently in the Height of Passion does that moving Picture in our Head start and stare, gather a Redness and quick Flashes of Lightning, and make all its Humours sparkle with Fire, as Virgil finely describes it.",,20893,"","""Now as to the peculiar Qualities of the Eye, that fine Part of our Constitution seems as much the Receptacle and Seat of our Passions, Appetites and Inclinations as the Mind it self; and at least it is the outward Portal to introduce them to the House within, or rather the common Thorough-fare to let our Affections pass in and out.""",Rooms,2013-06-17 19:34:06 UTC,""
4167,"",Reading,2013-08-07 14:55:50 UTC,"But other Spirits govern'd by the Will
Shoot thro' their Tracks, and distant Muscles fill.
This Sov'raign by his arbitrary Nod
Restrains, or sends his Ministers abroad.
Swift and obedient to his high Command,
They stir a Finger, or they lift a Hand;
They tune our Voices, or they move our Eyes;
By these we walk, or from the Ground arise:
By these we turn, by these the Body bend;
Contract a Limb at Pleasure, or extend.
And tho' these Spirits, which obsequious go,
Know not the Paths, thro' which they ready flow,
Nor can our Mind instruct them in their Way,
Of all their Roads as ignorant, as they;
Yet seldom erring they attain their End,
And reach that single Part, which we intend.
Unguided they a just Distinction make,
This Muscle swell, and leave the other slack.
And when their Force this Limb or that inflects,
Our Will the Measure of that Force directs,
The Spirits which distend them, as we please
Exert their Pow'r, or from their Duty cease.
(VI, ll. 648-669, pp. 304-5)",,22099,"","""And tho' these Spirits, which obsequious go, / Know not the Paths, thro' which they ready flow, / Nor can our Mind instruct them in their Way, / Of all their Roads as ignorant, as they; / Yet seldom erring they attain their End, / And reach that single Part, which we intend.""","",2013-08-07 14:55:50 UTC,Book VI
4167,"",Reading,2013-08-07 17:07:58 UTC,"She next essay'd the Embryo's Rise to trace
From an unfashion'd, rude, unchannell'd Mass;
And sung how Spirits waken'd in the Brain
Exert their Force, and genial Toil maintain;
Erect the beating Heart, the Channels frame,
Unfold entangled Limbs, and kindle vital Flame.
How the small Pipes are in Meanders laid,
And bounding Life is to and fro convey'd.
How Spirits, which for Sense and Motion serve,
Unguided find the perforated Nerve.
Thro' ev'ry dark Recess pursue their Flight,
Unconscious of the Road and void of Sight,
Yet certain of the End still guide their Motions right.
(VII, ll. 622-634, pp. 349-350)",,22114,"","""How Spirits, which for Sense and Motion serve, / Unguided find the perforated Nerve. / Thro' ev'ry dark Recess pursue their Flight, / Unconscious of the Road and void of Sight, / Yet certain of the End still guide their Motions right.""","",2013-08-07 17:08:19 UTC,Book VII
7820,"",ECCO-TCP,2014-03-02 20:22:34 UTC,"Now, Sir, you see my whole Contrivance to elude the Rigour of the Year, to bring a Northern Climate nearer the Sun, and to exempt my self from the common Fate of my Countrymen. I must detain you a little longer, to tell you, That I never enter this delicious Retirement, but my Spirits are revived, and a sweet Complacency diffuses it self over my whole Mind. And how can it be otherwise, with a Conscience void of Offence, where the Musick of Falling Waters, the Symphony of Birds, the gentle Humming of Bees, the Breath of Flowers, the fine Imagery of Painting and Sculpture: In a Word, the Beauties and the Charms of Nature and of Art court all my Faculties, refresh the Fibres of the Brain, and smooth every Avenue of Thought. What pleasing Meditations, what agreeable Wanderings of the Mind, and what delicious Slumbers, have I enjoyed here? And when I turn up some Masterly Writer to my Imagination, methinks here his Beauties appear in the most advantagious Light, and the Rays of his Genius shoot upon me with greater Force and Brightness than ordinary. This Place likewise keeps the whole Family in good Humour, in a Season wherein Gloominess of Temper prevails universally in this Island. My Wife does often touch her Lute in one of the Grotto's, and my Daughter sings to it, while the Ladies with you, amidst all the Diversions of the Town, and in the most affluent Fortunes, are fretting and repining beneath a lowering Sky for they know not what. In this Green House we often dine, we drink Tea, we dance Country-Dances; and what is the chief Pleasure of all, we entertain our Neighbours in it, and by this Means contribute very much to mend the Climate Five or Six Miles about us. [...]
(III, p. 324; cf. II, p. 477 in Bond ed.)",,23429,"","""In a Word, the Beauties and the Charms of Nature and of Art court all my Faculties, refresh the Fibres of the Brain, and smooth every Avenue of Thought. What pleasing Meditations, what agreeable Wanderings of the Mind, and what delicious Slumbers, have I enjoyed here?""","",2014-03-02 20:22:34 UTC,""
7864,Stranger Within,Reading work in progress by Sarah Kareem.,2014-04-12 22:29:52 UTC,"Yet the silly wand'ring mind,
Loth to be too much confin'd,
Roves and takes her daily tours,
Coasting round the narrow shores,
Narrow shores of flesh and sense,
Picking shells and pebbles thence:
Or she sits at fancy's door,
Calling shapes and shadows to her,
Foreign visits still receiving,
And t'herself a stranger living.
Never, never would she buy
Indian dust, or Tyrian dye,
Never trade abroad for more,
If she saw her native store,
If her inward worth were known
She might ever live alone.
(p. 470, ll. 59-74)",,23778,"","""Yet the silly wand'ring mind, / Loth to be too much confin'd, / Roves and takes her daily tours, / Coasting round the narrow shores, / Narrow shores of flesh and sense, / Picking shells and pebbles thence: / Or she sits at fancy's door, / Calling shapes and shadows to her, / Foreign visits still receiving, / And t'herself a stranger living.""",Inhabitants,2014-04-12 22:29:52 UTC,""