work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3866,"","Reading; found again searching ""windows"" in Past Masters. See also Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 144-145; found again reading M.H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition (London: Oxford UP, 1953), 57. Also, Joanna Picciotto, Labors of Innocence in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010), 261; Sean Silver, The Mind is a Collection: Case Studies in Eighteenth-Century Thought (Philadelphia: Penn Press, 2015), 31, 56, 58, 63.",2006-04-16 00:00:00 UTC,"I pretend not to teach, but to enquire, and therefore cannot but confess here again, that external and internal sensation are the only passages I can find of knowledge to the understanding. These alone, as far as I can discover, are the windows by which light is let into this dark room: For methinks the understanding is not much unlike a closet wholly shut from light, with only some little openings left, to let in external visible resemblances, or ideas of things without: Would the pictures coming into such a dark room but stay there, and lie so orderly as to be found upon occasion, it would very much resemble the understanding of a man, in reference to all objects of sight, and the ideas of them.
(II.xi.17)",2004-11-08,10009,"•I've included thrice: Windows, Room, Closet","Internal and external sensation, ""These alone, as far as I can discover, are the windows by which light is let into this dark room: For methinks the understanding is not much unlike a closet wholly shut from light, with only some little openings left, to let in external visible resemblances, or ideas of things without""",Rooms,2016-03-11 21:28:43 UTC,II.xi.17
3885,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),2004-06-14 00:00:00 UTC,"THE DISCOURAGEMENT
What wou'd the wise men's Censure be,
I wonder, should they hear me say
I was resolv'd to throw my Books away;
How wou'd some scorn, and others pitty me!
Sure he's in love, 'tis for some Charming Eve
That he like Adam Paradise does leave.
This only difference would be
Between my great Gandsire, and me,
That I my Paradise forego
For want of appetite to know.
'Tis not that Knowledge I despise;
No, you misconstrue my design;
Or that t' Enthusiasm I incline
And hope by Inspiration to be wise.
'Tis not for this I bid my Books adieu,
No, I love Learning full as well as you,
And have the Arts great Circle run
With as much Vigour as the Sun
His Zodiac treads, till t'other day
A thought surpris'd me in my way.
Thought I, for any thing I know,
What we have stamp'd for science here,
Does only the Appearance of it wear
And will not pass above, tho Current here below;
Perhaps they've other rules to reason by,
And what's Truth here, with them's Absurdity.
We Truth by a Refracted ray
View, like the Sun at Ebb of day:
Whom the gross, treacherous Atmosphere
Makes where it is not, to appear.
Why then shall I with sweat and pain
Digg Mines of disputable Oar?
My labour's certain, so is not my store,
I may hereafter unlearn all again.
Why then for Truth do I my Spirits waste,
When after all I may be guil'd at last?
So when the honest Patriarch thought
With seven years labour he had bought
His Rachels Love, by morning light
He found the errour of the night.
Or grant some Knowledge dwells below,
'Tis but for some few years to stay
Till I'm set loose from this dark House of Clay,
And in an Instant I shall all things know.
Then shall I learn t' Accumulate Degrees
And be at once made Master of all Sciences.
What need I then great Summs lay out,
And that Estate with care forestall,
Which when few years are come about,
Into my hands of Course will fall?
",,10058,•INTEREST. A poem in which a philosopher despairs of philosophy. Poem bears witness to Norris's Platonism/Malebranchism,"""We Truth by a Refracted ray / View, like the Sun at Ebb of day: / Whom the gross, treacherous Atmosphere / Makes where it is not, to appear.""","",2013-06-26 16:11:20 UTC,""
4027,Mind's Eye,HDIS (Poetry),2004-02-25 00:00:00 UTC," As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass,
Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass;
A little we discover; but allow,
That more remains unseen, than Art can show:
So whilst our Mind it's Knowledge wou'd improve;
(It's feeble Eye intent on Things above)
High as We may, We lift our Reason up,
By Faith directed, and confirm'd by Hope:
Yet are We able only to survey
Dawnings of Beams, and Promises of Day.
Heav'n's fuller Effluence mocks our dazl'd Sight;
Too great it's Swiftness, and too strong it's Light.
(p. 208, ll. 17-26)",2013-06-04,10432,"•Collected in 1707, 1718.
• was split into two entries. I deleted on.","""As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass, / Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass; / A little we discover; but allow, / That more remains unseen, than Art can show: / So whilst our Mind it's Knowledge wou'd improve; / (It's feeble Eye intent on Things above) / High as We may, We lift our Reason up, / By Faith directed, and confirm'd by Hope: / Yet are We able only to survey / Dawnings of Beams, and Promises of Day.""",Eye and Optics,2013-06-04 21:30:12 UTC,""
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-11 22:36:46 UTC,"GOD governs the World by several attributes and emanations from himself. The Nature of things is supported by his Power, the events of things are ordered by his Providence, and the actions of reasonable Creatures are governed by Laws,
and these Laws are put into a Man's soul or mind as into a
Treasury or Repository: some in his very nature, some by
after-actions, by education and positive sanction, by learning
and custome; so that it was well said of St. Bernard, Conscientia candor est lucis aeterne, & speculum sine macula Dei Majestatis, & imago bonitatis illius. Conscience is the brightness and splendor of the eternal light, a spotless mirror of the Divine Majesty, and the Image of the goodness of God. It is higher which Tatianus said of conscience, [GREEK], Conscience is God unto uswhich saying he had from Menander,
[Greek]
and it had in it this truth, that God, who is every where in several manners, hath the appellative of his own attributes and effects in the several manners of his presence.
Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris
(I.i.1, p. 1)",,17640,"","""Conscience is the brightness and splendor of the eternal light, a spotless mirror of the Divine Majesty, and the Image of the goodness of God.""","",2010-01-11 22:36:46 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I, Rule I."
6696,"",Reading,2010-04-14 18:28:25 UTC,"But what, you ask, is this legitimate method. Please drop all arts and subterfuges, you say, and put the matter plainly before us, so that we may use our own judgment. Would to God, my dear boy, that your situation was such that this could be done. But do you suppose, when all the approaches and entrances to men's minds are beset and blocked by the most obscure idols -- idols deeply implanted and, as it were, burned in -- that any clean and polished surface remains in the mirror of the mind on which the genuine natural light of things can fall? A new method must be found for quiet entry into minds so choked and overgrown. Frenzied men are exacerbated by violent opposition but may be beguiled by art. This gives us a hint how we should proceed in this universal madness. Do you really think it is easy to provide the favourable conditions required for the legitimate passing on of knowledge? The method must be mild and afford no occasion of error. It must have in it an inherent power of winning support and a vital principle which will stand up against the ravages of time, so that the tradition of science may mature and spread like some lively vigorous vine. Then also science must be such as to select her followers, who must be worthy to be adopted into her family. This is what must be provided. Whether I can manage it or not the future must decide.
(p. 62)",,17780,"","""But do you suppose, when all the approaches and entrances to men's minds are beset and blocked by the most obscure idols -- idols deeply implanted and, as it were, burned in -- that any clean and polished surface remains in the mirror of the mind on which the genuine natural light of things can fall?""","",2010-04-14 18:28:25 UTC,""
7447,"",Searching in Project Gutenberg,2013-06-17 15:59:11 UTC,"§ 6. On the other hand, those who affirm that Hai Ebn Yokdhan was produced in that Island without Father and Mother [18], tell us, that in that island, in a piece of Low ground, it chanc'd that a certain Mass of Earth was so fermented in some period of Years, that the four qualities, viz. Hot, Cold, Dry, Moist, were so equally mix'd, that none of 'em prevail'd over the other; and that this Mass was of a very great Bulk, in which, some parts were better and more equally Temper'd than others,and consequently fitter for Generation; the middle part especially, which came nearest to the Temper of Man's Body. This Matter being in a fermentation, there arose some Bubbles by reason of its viscousness, and it chanc'd that in the midst of it there was a viscous Substance with a very little bubble in it, which was divided into two with a thin partition, full of Spirituous and Aerial Substance, and of the most exact Temperature imaginable. That the Matter being thus dispos'd, there was, by the Command of God, a Spirit infus'd into it; which was join'd so closely to it, that it can scarce be separated from it even so much as in thought; which did as constantly influence this Mass of matter as the Sun do's the World. Now there are some Bodies from whence we perceive no Reflection of Light, as the thin Air: others from which we do but imperfectly; such are thick Bodies which are not smooth (but there is a difference in these, and the difference of their Colours arises from the different manner of their Reception of the Rays); and from others we receive the Reflection in the highest degree, as from Bodies which are smooth and polish'd, as Looking-Glasses and the like; so that those Glasses when ground after a particular manner will Collect so much Light as to kindle a Fire. So that Spirit which comes by the Command of God, do's at all times act upon all Creatures, in some of which notwithstanding, there appears no Impression of it, but the reason of that is, because of their Incapacity into whom it is infus'd; of which kind are things inanimate which are fitly represented in this similitude, by the thin Air. There are another sort again; in which there does appear something of it, as Vegetables and the like, which are represented by the thick Bodies we mention'd, which are not polish'd. And then lastly, there are others, (represented by those Glasses, in our last comparison) in which the impressions of this Spirit are visible, and such we reckon all sorts of Animals. But then, as these smooth and polish'd Bodies which are of the same figure with the Sun [i.e. Spherical] do receive the Rays in a more plentiful manner than any other whatsoever, so also do some Animals receive the Influence of that Spirit more than others, because they are more like to that Spirit and are form'd after his Image: such is Man particularly, which is hinted before where 'tis said that God made Man after his own Image[19]. ",,20835,"","""And then lastly, there are others, (represented by those Glasses, in our last comparison) in which the impressions of this Spirit are visible, and such we reckon all sorts of Animals. But then, as these smooth and polish'd Bodies which are of the same figure with the Sun [i.e. Spherical] do receive the Rays in a more plentiful manner than any other whatsoever, so also do some Animals receive the Influence of that Spirit more than others, because they are more like to that Spirit and are form'd after his Image: such is Man particularly, which is hinted before where 'tis said that God made Man after his own Image.""",Mirror,2013-06-17 15:59:11 UTC,""
7475,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 16:33:20 UTC,"'Unhappy Leonora (said she) how is thy poor unwary Heart misled? Whither am I come? The false deluding Lights of an imaginary Flame, have led me, a poor benighted Victim, to a real Fire. I burn and am consumed with hopeless Love; those Beams in whose soft temperate warmth I wanton'd heretofore, now flash destruction to my Soul, my Treacherous greedy Eyes have suck'd the glaring Light, they have united all its Rays, and, like a burning-Glass, Convey'd the pointed Meteor to-my Heart--Ah! Aurelian, how quickly hast thou Conquer'd, and, how quickly mine thou Forsake.--Oh Happy (to me unfortunately Happy) Juliana!--I am to be the Subject of thy Triumph --To thee Aurelian comes laden with the Tribute of my Heart and Glories in the Oblation of his broken Vows.--What then is Aurelian False!--False! alass, I know not what I say; How can he be False, or True, or any Thing to me? What Promises did he ere make or I receive? Sure I dream, or I am mad, and fansie it to be Love; Foolish Girl, recal thy banish'd Reason.--Ah! would it were no more, would I could rave, sure that would give me Ease, and rob me of the Sense of Pain; at least, among my wandring Thoughts, I should at sometime light upon Aurelian, and fansie him to be mine; kind Madness would flatter my poor feeble Wishes, and sometimes tell me Aurelian is not lost--not irrecoverably--not for ever lost.'
(pp. 113-4)",,20945,"","""I burn and am consumed with hopeless Love; those Beams in whose soft temperate warmth I wanton'd heretofore, now flash destruction to my Soul, my Treacherous greedy Eyes have suck'd the glaring Light, they have united all its Rays, and, like a burning-Glass, Convey'd the pointed Meteor to-my Heart.""",Mirror,2013-06-18 16:33:20 UTC,""
3876,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-19 19:32:58 UTC,"That we do Hear and See, we all do grant,
But of the manner how, are Ignorant.
If then in things within us we may err,
With which each Moment we'er familiar:
What hope remains, that we the Truth should find
Of things without, by our deluded Mind?
The Sense deceivs us, and like Painted Glass
Tinges all Objects, that do thrô it pass.
(ll. 68-75)",,21026,"","""The Sense deceivs us, and like Painted Glass / Tinges all Objects, that do thrô it pass.""","",2013-06-19 19:32:58 UTC,""
3986,"",Reading in Google Books,2014-07-30 14:58:56 UTC,"5. Another Reason may be the exceeding great Difficulty of the Argument, there being not any one Subject perhaps of a more refined and elevated Nature, or that will carry a Writer through a larger Sea of matter of the most Abstract, Sublime and Metaphysical Considederation. The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light and Truth, and staring, with a full-levell'd Eye, the great Luminary of Spirits in the very Face. And tho' Truth be the Food of the Soul, and the relish of it be very Delicious and Savoury to its Tast, and tho' even in this Sense also Light be sweet,and a pleasant thing it is to the Eye to behold the Sun, yet it is painful and troublesom to behold it So, and Men Love Shade and Darkness, rather than so strong and so high a Tide of Light.
(I, pp. 5-6)",,24371,"","""The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light and Truth, and staring, with a full-levell'd Eye, the great Luminary of Spirits in the very Face.""",Mirror,2014-07-30 14:58:56 UTC,""
3476,"","Reading Rayna Kalas, Frame, Glass, Verse: The Technology of Poetic Invention in the English Renaissance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), 148.",2014-07-31 20:03:22 UTC,"II To discover then the error and ignorance of this opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, any man may see plainly that these men doe not observe and consider, That it was not that Pure and Primitive Knowledge of Nature, by the light whereof man did give names to other Creatures in Paradise, as they were brought before him, according to their Proprieties, which gave the occasion to the Fall; but it was that proud knowledge of Good and Evill, with an intent to shake of God and to give Law unto himselfe. Neither is it any Quantity of Knowledge; how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swel; for nothing can fill, much lesse extend the soule of man but God, and the contemplation of God: therefore Solomon speaking of the two Principall senses of Inquisition, the Eye and the Eare,* affirmes That the Eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the Eare with hearing; and if there be no fulnesse, then is the Continent greater then the Content. So of Knowledge it selfe & the Mind of Man, whereto the Sences are but Reporters, he defines like wise in the words plac't after the Calendar or Ephemerides which he makes of the diversity of times and seasons for all Actions and Purposes,* concluding thus, God hath made all things Beautifull and Decent in the true returne of their seasons; also he hath placed the world in mans heart, yet cannot man finde out the worke which God worketh from the beginning unto the end: By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of things and the vicisitude of times, but raised also to finde out and to discerne the inviolable lawes and the infallible decrees of Nature. And although he seem to insinuate that the supreme or summary law of Nature, which he calleth the worke which God worketh from the beginning to the end, is not possible to be found out by man, yet that doth not derogate from the Capacity of the Mind, but may be referred to the impediments of knowledge, as the shortnesse of life, the ill conjunction of labours deprav'd, and unfaithfull Tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand; and many other inconveniences wherewith the condition of man is ensnared and involv'd. For that no parcell of the world is denied to mans inquiry, or invention he cleerly declares in another place, where he saith,*The spirit of a man is as the Lamp of God wherewith he searcheth the inwards of all secrets. § If then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no danger at all from the Proportion or Quantity of knowledge how large soever, lest it should make it swell or outcompasse it selfe, but meerly in the Quality, which being in Quantity more or lesse, if it be taken without the true Corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of malignity, or venome full of flatuous symptomes. This Antidote, or Corrective spice, the mixture whereof tempers knowledge and makes it so soveraigne is Charity, which the Apostle immediatly addes in the former clause, saying,*Knowledge blowes up, but Charity builds up; Not unlike to that which he delivers in an other place,*If I spake (saith he) with the tongues of Men and Angels and had not Charity, it were but as a tinkling Cymball: Not but that it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongus of Men and Angels, but because if it be sever'd from Charity, and not referr'd to the publique good of Mankind, it rather exhibites a vaine and empty glory, then any substantiall and solid fruit.
(pp. 5-7 in EEBO-TCP edition)",,24381,"","""By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of things and the vicisitude of times, but raised also to finde out and to discerne the inviolable lawes and the infallible decrees of Nature.""",Mirror,2014-07-31 20:04:00 UTC,""