text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"That the plan of life which enables us to carry some knowledge and virtue into another world, is the one best calculated to ensure the content in this cannot be denied; yet few people act according to this principle, though it be universally allowed that it admits not of dispute. Present pleasure, or present power, carry before it these sober convictions; and it is for the day, not for life, that man bargains with happiness. How few!--how very few! have sufficient foresight of resolution, to endure a small evil at the moment, to avoid a greater hereafter.
Woman in particular, whose virtue is built on mutable prejudices, seldom attains to this greatness of mind; so that, becoming the slave of her own feelings, she is easily subjugated by those of others. Thus degraded, her reason, her misty reason! is employed rather to burnish than to snap her chains.
(pp. 70-1; cf. pp. 226-227 in EECO-TCP)",2014-08-10 06:42:15 UTC,"""Thus degraded, her reason, her misty reason! is employed rather to burnish than to snap her chains.""",2009-09-14 19:43:33 UTC,"","",2011-05-26,Fetters,"",Reading,15397,5775
"Turn to the Nobles! there let Pity view
The many suff'ring for the guilty few!
Perish the wretch who, sanction'd by his birth,
Presumes to persecute the child of worth!
Perish the wretch who tarnishes descent
By the vile vaunting of a life ill spent!
Who sullies proud propinquity of blood,
Yet frowns indignant on the low-born Good!
Who shields his recreant bosom with a name;
And, first in Infamy, is last in Fame!
Yet let Reflection's eye discriminate
The difference 'twixt the mighty and the great!
Virtue is still illustrious, still sublime,
In ev'ry station, and in ev'ry clime!
Truth can derive no eminence from birth,
Rich in the proud supremacy of worth;
Its blest dominion vast and unconfin'd,
Its crown eternal, and its throne the mind!
Then Heav'n forbid that prejudice should scan
With jaundic'd eye the dignities of man!
That Persecution's agonizing rod
Should boldly smite the ""noblest work of God!""
That Rank should be a crime, and Genius hurl'd
A mournful wand'rer on the pitying world!
Yet Heav'n forbid that Ignorance should rise
On the dread basis where Religion dies!
That Liberty, immortal as the spheres,
Should steep her Laurel in a nation's tears!
Oh, falsely nam'd! Does Liberty require
The Child should perish for the guilty Sire?
Does Liberty inspire the Atheist's breast
To mock his God, and make his laws a jest?
Does Liberty with barbarous fetters bind
Her first-born hope, the freedom of the mind?
Hence, bold Usurper of that heav'n-taught pow'r,
Which wings with ecstacy man's transient hour!
Which bids the eye of Reason cloudless shine,
And gives Mortality a charm divine!
'Midst the wild winds, the lordly cedar tow'rs;
Progressive days invigorate its pow'rs;
The earlier branches, with'ring as they spread,
Round the firm root their coarsest foliage shed;
While the proud Tree its verdant head rears high,
Waves to the blast, and seems to pierce the sky;
Till the rich trunk, matur'd by length'ning years,
Through all their wondrous changes, braves the spheres;
Flings its rich fragrance on the gales that sweep
The humid forehead of the mountain's steep;
Mocks the fierce rage of elemental war,
The bolt's red sulphur, and the thunder's jar;
And, when around the shatter'd fragments lie,
The stricken victims of th' infuriate sky--
Amidst the wrecks of Nature seems to climb
Supremely grand, and awfully sublime!",2011-05-27 14:25:23 UTC,"""Does Liberty with barbarous fetters bind / Her first-born hope, the freedom of the mind?"" ",2004-07-09 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2011-06-27,Fetters,"",Searching HDIS (Poetry),16034,6046
"Oblivion horrible! to know no change;
Nor light from darkness! nor the human form,
The image of perfection infinite!
To fashion various phantoms of the brain,
By each amus'd, and yet by each deceiv'd!
To roll the aching eye, alas! in vain,
And still to find a melancholy blank
Of years, and months, and days, and ling'ring hours,
All dark alike, eternally obscure!
To such a wretch! whose brightest sense of bliss
Is but the shadow of a waking dream,
The sleep of death, with all its startling fears,
Must teem with prospects of Elysium!
For what is sleep, but temporary death;
Sealing up all the windows of the soul,
And binding ev'ry thought in torpid chains?
Yet, only for a time the spell controuls,
And soothing visions gild the transient gloom;
For every active faculty of mind
Springs from the numbing apathy of sleep
With renovated lustre and delight!
But he who knows one unenlighten'd void,
One dreary night, unbless'd with cheerful dreams,
Lives in the midst of Death; and, when he sleeps,
Feeds a perpetual solitude of woe,
Without one ray to dissipate its gloom.
(pp. 2-3 in 1793 ed., pp. 29-30 in 1806)",2011-07-19 19:39:34 UTC,"""For what is sleep, but temporary death; / Sealing up all the windows of the soul, / And binding ev'ry thought in torpid chains?""",2005-04-19 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2011-05-23,Fetters and Rooms,•I've included twice: Window and Fetters.,"Searching ""soul"" and ""seal"" in HDIS (Poetry); found again ""window""",16057,6060
"The imperfection of all modern governments must, without waiting to repeat the trite remark, that all human institutions are unavoidably imperfect, in a great measure have arisen from this simple circumstance, that the constitution, if such an heterogeneous mass deserve that name, was settled in the dark days of ignorance, when the minds of men were shackled by the grossest prejudices and most immoral superstition. And do you, Sir, a sagacious philosopher, recommend night as the fittest time to analyze a ray of light?
(p. 42)",2011-05-26 21:07:05 UTC,"""The imperfection of all modern governments must, without waiting to repeat the trite remark, that all human institutions are unavoidably imperfect, in a great measure have arisen from this simple circumstance, that the constitution, if such an heterogeneous mass deserve that name, was settled in the dark days of ignorance, when the minds of men were shackled by the grossest prejudices and most immoral superstition.""",2009-12-02 18:13:11 UTC,"","",2011-05-26,Fetters,"",Reading,17533,6611
"And yet, in such a mind, so whelm'd in gloom,
The pure affections of the soul still live!
The melancholy void is subject still
To the sweet magic of seraphic sounds;
The soothing eloquence of sacred song;
The whisp'ring gale, that mourns declining day;
Or Philomela's soul-subduing strain,
That woos lone Echo, from her viewless seat,
To sail aërial-thron'd upon the breeze!
The lulling murmurs of the wand'ring stream;
The ever rippling rill; the cataract fierce;
The lowing herds; and the small drowsy tones
That, from the insect myriads, hum around;
The love-taught minstrelsy of plumed throats;
The dulcet strains of gentle Consolation!
But, most of all, to that lov'd voice, whose thrill,
Rushing impetuous through each throbbing vein,
Dilates the wond'ring mind, and frees its pow'rs
From the cold chains of icy apathy
To all the vast extremes of bliss and pain!
For, to that voice ador'd, his quiv'ring pulse
Responsive beats! he marks its ev'ry tone,
And finds in each a sympathetic balm!
Ill-fated wretch! he knows not the sweet sense
That feeds upon the magic of a smile!
That drinks the poison of the murd'rous eye,
Or rushes, in an ecstasy of bliss,
To snatch the living roses from the cheek!
He knows not what it is to trace each charm
That plays about the symmetry of form,
And heightens ev'ry timid blushing grace,
More lovely, from the wonder it commands!
He never mark'd the soul-expressive tear!
The undescribable and speaking glance,
That promises unutterable bliss!
Then what to him avails the ruby lip,
Or the rich lustre of the silky waves,
That half conceal the azure tinctur'd eye,
As golden clouds rush on the morning star,
And glow, exulting, o'er its milder ray!
(pp. 6-8 in 1793, pp. 32-3 in 1806 ed.)",2011-07-19 19:41:19 UTC,"""But, most of all, [the mind is subject] to that lov'd voice, whose thrill, / Rushing impetuous through each throbbing vein, / Dilates the wond'ring mind, and frees its pow'rs / From the cold chains of icy apathy / To all the vast extremes of bliss and pain!""",2011-07-19 19:31:06 UTC,"","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Poetry)",18925,6060
"IBRAHIM
Yes, she has a thousand charms, and my heart is already in her chains.--How dared Mustapha deceive me? He talked of deformity--her form is symmetry itself, and her hair which he decried, is fit for the bow-strings of the god of love.
(III.i)
",2011-07-28 19:36:02 UTC,"""Yes, she has a thousand charms, and my heart is already in her chains.""",2011-07-28 19:36:02 UTC,"Act III, scene i","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)",19043,7043
"IBRAHIM
O thou enchantress!
[Starting back]
Thou wife of Orloff! thou hast my soul in chains--drag it not to perdition!
(V.v)",2011-07-30 20:52:30 UTC,"""Thou wife of Orloff! thou hast my soul in chains--drag it not to perdition!""",2011-07-30 20:52:30 UTC,"Act V, scene v","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)",19074,7043
"IBRAHIM
Christian, thou know'st me not! Whilst left to myself, I could command myself! My ardent passions I could hold in chains, and suppress that love which honor could not sanction--But thou shalt know when thus oppos'd, I own no law but will--drag him away.
(V.v)",2011-08-01 19:45:06 UTC,"""My ardent passions I could hold in chains, and suppress that love which honor could not sanction.""",2011-08-01 19:45:06 UTC,"Act V, scene v","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""passion"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)",19080,7043
"Of all bondage, mental bondage is surely the most fatal; the absurd despotism which has hitherto, with more than gothic barbarity, enslaved the female mind, the enervating and degrading system of manners by which the understandings of women have been chained down to frivolity and trifles, have increased the general tide of effeminacy and corruption. To conform to the perpetual fluctuation of fashion (and few have the courage to dare the ""slow and moving finger of scorn,"" which is pointed at every external singularity) requires almost their whole time and attention, and leaves little leisure for intellectual improvement.
(III, 19-20)",2012-03-29 19:39:25 UTC,"""Of all bondage, mental bondage is surely the most fatal; the absurd despotism which has hitherto, with more than gothic barbarity, enslaved the female mind, the enervating and degrading system of manners by which the understandings of women have been chained down to frivolity and trifles, have increased the general tide of effeminacy and corruption.""",2012-03-29 19:39:16 UTC,No. III. On the Influence of Authority and Custom on the Female Mind and Manners,"",,Fetters,"","Reading Anne K. Mellor’s “The Rights of Woman and the Woman Writers of Wollstonecraft’s Day” in Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft, ed. Claudia L. Johnson (Cambridge UP, 2002), 143.",19659,7207
"Sonnet LVII.
To Dependence
Dependence! heavy, heavy are thy chains,
And happier they who from the dangerous sea,
Or the dark mine, procure with ceaseless pains
An hard-earn'd pittance--than who trust to thee!
More blest the hind, who from his bed of flock
Starts--when the birds of morn their summons give,
And waken'd by the lark--""the shepherd's clock,""
Lives but to labour--labouring but to live.
More noble than the sycophant, whose art
Must heap with taudry flowers thy hated shrine;
I envy not the meed thou canst impart
To crown his service--while, tho' Pride combine
With Fraud to crush me--my unfetter'd heart
Still to the Mountain Nymph may offer mine.",2013-06-13 15:59:40 UTC,"""More noble than the sycophant, whose art / Must heap with taudry flowers thy hated shrine; / I envy not the meed thou canst impart / To crown his service--while, tho' Pride combine / With Fraud to crush me--my unfetter'd heart / Still to the Mountain Nymph may offer mine.""",2013-06-13 15:59:40 UTC,"","",,Fetters,"",Reading,20620,7429