work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5081,"",Searching in HDIS (Prose),2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,"Upon this I mounted into the censorium of his brain, to learn from the spirit of consciousness, which you call self, the cause of so uncommon a change, as it is contrary to the fundamental rules of our order, ever to give up an heart of which we once get possession.
I found the spirit very busy, though I thought somewhat odly employed: she was running over a number of niches, or impressions, on the fibres of the brain, some of which I observed she renewed with such force, that she almost effaced others, which she passed over untouched, though interspersed among them. The sight of me seemed to suspend her works a moment, but as if that pause was only to recover strength, she instantly renewed her labour with greater assiduity.
I looked at her, my desire to know the meaning of what she was doing, and to signify the cause of my visit, to which she returned me this answer in a glance, that interrupted not her work.
(I see you wonder, that I speak of this spirit, though the self of a man, as if it was a female; but in this there is a mystery; every spirit is of both sexes, but as the female is the worthier with us, we take our denomination from that.)
You are surprised, (looked she) to find me so earnestly engaged, in work which you do not understand; but in this work consists my very essence. This place, where we are, is the seat of memory; and these traces, which you see me running over thus, are the impressions made on the brain by a communication of the impressions made on the senses by external objects. --These first impressions are called ideas, which are lodged in this repository of the memory, in these marks, by running which over, I can raise the same ideas, when I please, which differ from their first appearance only in this, that, on their return, they come with the familiarity of a former acquaintance.
How this communication though is made, I cannot so well inform you; whether it is by the oscillation of the nervous fibres, or by the operation of a certain invisible fluid, called animal spirits, on the nerves; no more than I can explain to you, how my touching these marks, on this material substance the brain, can raise ideas in the immaterial mind, and with the addition of acquaintance beside; for these are matters not quite fully settled among the learned.
All I know is, that the thing is agreed to be so by some, or other, or all of these means; and that my whole employment, and end of being, is to touch them over, and acknowledge their acquaintance thus; without my doing which, a man would no longer continue the same person, for in this acquaintance, which is called consciousness, does all personal identity consist.
(pp. 8-11)",2011-12-20,13665,"•I had included two times but am revising.
Note, Richard Steele had a theater project called the ""Censorium"": http://www.jstor.org/stable/3816181","""Upon this I mounted into the censorium of his brain, to learn from the spirit of consciousness, which you call self, the cause of so uncommon a change, as it is contrary to the fundamental rules of our order, ever to give up an heart of which we once get possession.""",Inhabitant and Rooms,2011-12-20 19:22:32 UTC,"Vol. 1, Book 1, Chap. 2"
5081,"","Searching ""room"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Prose)",2005-09-03 00:00:00 UTC,"The joy of the mistress seemed to make amends to my vanity for the indifference of her maid, and promise me the full possession of her heart, but I soon found myself mistaken, and that her love for me was only while I was the property of another; for no sooner did I become her own, than she threw me carelessly into her purse, and turned her thoughts immediately to the acquisition of more. But though I lost the greatest part of my power over her, by coming into her possession, I still found ample room in her heart for my abode",,13675,•USE in entry. INTEREST.
•I've included twice: Architecture and Inhabitant,"""But though I lost the greatest part of my power over her, by coming into her possession, I still found ample room in her heart for my abode""","",2009-09-14 19:38:57 UTC,"Vol. 1, Book 2, Chap. 2"
5088,Momus Glass,HDIS (Prose),2009-09-14 19:39:00 UTC,"I Have a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy. --Accordingly I set off thus.
If the fixure of Momus's glass, in the human breast, according to the proposed emendation of that arch-critick, had taken place,--first, This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,-- That the very wisest and the very gravest of us all, in one coin or other, must have paid window-money every day of our lives.
And, secondly, That had the said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,-- view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;-- traced all her maggots from their first engendering to their crawling forth;-- watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios; and ofter some notice of her more solemn deportment, consequent upon such frisks, & c. --then taken your pen and ink and set down nothing but what you had seen, and could have sworn to: --But this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet,--in the planet Mercury (belike) it may be so, if not better still for him;--for there the intense heat of the country, which is proved by computators, from its vicinity to the sun, to be more than equal to that of red hot iron,--must, I think, long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants, (as the efficient cause) to suit them for the climate (which is the final cause); so that, betwixt them both, all the tenements of their souls, from top to bottom, may be nothing else, for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary, but one fine transparent body of clear glass (bating the umbilical knot);-- so, that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled, whereby the rays of light, in passing through them, become so monstrously refracted,--or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye, that a man cannot be seen thro';--his soul might as well, unless, for more ceremony,--or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,--might, upon all other accounts, I say, as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house.
But this, as I said above, is not the case of the inhabitants of this earth;-- our minds shine not through the body, but are wrapt up here in a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh and blood; so that if we would come to the specifick characters of them, we must go some other way to work.
Many, in good truth, are the ways which human wit has been forced to take to do this thing with exactness.
Some, for instance, draw all their characters with wind instruments. -- Virgil takes notice of that way in the affair of Dido and Æneas ;--but it is as fallacious as the breath of fame;--and, moreover, bespeaks a narrow genius. I am not ignorant that the Italians pretend to a mathematical exactness in their designations of one particular sort of character among them, from the forte or piano of a certain wind instrument they use,--which they say is infallible. --I dare not mention the name of the instrument in this place;--'tis sufficient we have it amongst us,--but never think of making a drawing by it;--this is ænigmatical, and intended to be so, at least, ad populum : -- And therefore I beg, Madam, when you come here, that you read on as fast as you can, and never stop to make any inquiry about it.
There are others again, who will draw a man's character from no other helps in the world, but merely from his evacuations; --but this often gives a very incorrect out-line,--unless, indeed, you take a sketch of his repletions too; and by correcting one drawing from the other, compound one good figure out of them both.
I should have no objection to this method, but that I think it must smell too strong of the lamp,--and be render'd still more operose, by forcing you to have an eye to the rest of his Non-Naturals . -- Why the most natural actions of a man's life should be call'd his Non-Naturals,-- is another question.
There are others, fourthly, who disdain every one of these expedients;--not from any fertility of his own, but from the various ways of doing it, which they have borrowed from the honourable devices which the Pentagraphic Brethren of the brush have shewn in taking copies. --These, you must know, are your great historians.
One of these you will see drawing a full-length character against the light ;-- that's illiberal,--dishonest,--and hard upon the character of the man who sits.
Others, to mend the matter, will make a drawing of you in the Camera ;--that is most unfair of all,--because, there you are sure to be represented in some of your most ridiculous attitudes.
To avoid all and every one of these errors, in giving you my uncle Toby's character, I am determin'd to draw it by no mechanical help whatever;--nor shall my pencil be guided by any one wind instrument which ever was blown upon, either on this, or on the other side of the Alps ;--nor will I consider either his repletions or his discharges,-- or touch upon his Non-Naturals;--but, in a word, I will draw my uncle Toby's character from his Hobby-Horse.
(Vol I, Chapter xxiii, pp. 165-172)",2011-09-23,13695,Mercurians are made of glass,"""[I]n the planet Mercury (belike) it may be so, if not better still for [the biographer];--for there the intense heat of the country, which is proved by computators, from its vicinity to the sun, to be more than equal to that of red hot iron,--must, I think, long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants, (as the efficient cause) to suit them for the climate (which is the final cause); so that, betwixt them both, all the tenements of their souls, from top to bottom, may be nothing else, for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary, but one fine transparent body of clear glass (bating the umbilical knot);-- so, that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled, whereby the rays of light, in passing through them, become so monstrously refracted,--or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye, that a man cannot be seen thro';--his soul might as well, unless, for more ceremony,--or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,--might, upon all other accounts, I say, as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house.""",Optics and Rooms,2011-09-23 18:42:25 UTC,"Vol 1, Chap. 23."
5088,Wit and Judgment,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2004-11-17 00:00:00 UTC,"My most zealous wish and fervent prayer in your behalf, and in my own too, in case the thing is not done already for us,--is, that the great gifts and endowments both of wit and judgment, with every thing which usually goes along with them,--such as memory, fancy, genius, eloquence, quick parts, and what not, may this precious moment without stint or measure, let or hinderance, be poured down warm as each of us could bear it,--scum and sediment an' all; (for I would not have a drop lost) into these veral receptacles, cells, cellules, domiciles, dormitories, refectories, and spare places of our brains,--in such sort, that they might continue to be injected and tunn'd into, according to the true intent and meaning of my wish, until every vessel of them, both great and small, be so replenished, saturated and fill'd up therewith, that no more, would it save a man's life, could possibly be got either in or out.
(pp. 88-9; Norton, 141)",2011-06-17,13705,"•I've included thrice: Liquid, Container, and Architecture.","The gifts and endowments of wit and judgment may ""be poured down warm as each of us could bear it,--scum and sediment an' all; (for I would not have a drop lost) into these veral receptacles, cells, cellules, domiciles, dormitories, refectories, and spare places of our brains,--in such sort, that they might continue to be injected and tunn'd into, according to the true intent and meaning of my wish, until every vessel of them, both great and small, be so replenished, saturated and fill'd up therewith, that no more, would it save a man's life, could possibly be got either in or out.""",Rooms,2011-06-17 17:26:44 UTC,"Volume III, Chapter 20: The Author's Preface"
5088,Wit and Judgment,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2004-11-17 00:00:00 UTC,"I enter now directly upon the point.
--Here stands wit,--and there stands judgment, close beside it, just like the two knobbs I'm speaking of, upon the back of this self same chair on which I am sitting.
--You see, they are the highest and most ornamental parts of its frame,--as wit and judgment are of ours,--and like them too, indubitably both made and fitted to go together, in order as we say in all such cases of duplicated embellishments,--to answer one another.
Now for the sake of an experiment, and for the clearer illustrating this matter,-- let us for a moment, take off one of these two curious ornaments (I care not which) from the point or pinacle of the chair it now stands on;--nay, don't laugh at it.--But did you ever see in the whole course of your lives such a ridiculous business as this has made of it? --Why, 'tis as miserable a sight as a sow with one ear; and there is just as much sense and symmetry in the one, as in the other:--do,--pray, get off your seats, only to take a view of it. --Now would any man who valued his character a straw, have turned a piece of work out of his hand in such a condition?----nay, lay your hands upon your hearts, and answer this plain question, Whether this one single knobb which now stands here like a blockhead by itself, can serve any purpose upon earth, but to put one in mind of the want of the other;--and let me further ask, in case the chair was your own, if you would not in your consciences think, rather than be as it is, that it would be ten times better without any knobb at all.
Now these two knobs--or top ornaments of the mind of man, which crown the whole entablature,--being, as I said, wit and judgment, which of all others, as I have proved it, are the most needful,--the most priz'd,--the most calamitous to be without, and consequently the hardest to come at,--for all these reasons put together, there is not a mortal amongst us, so destitute of a love of good fame or feeding,----or so ignorant of what will do him good therein,--who does not wish and stedfastly resolve in his own mind, to be, or to be thought at least master of the one or the other, and indeed of both of them, if the thing seems any way feasible, or likely to be brought to pass.
(pp. 104-6 Norton, 146)",2011-09-23,13713,"•Sterne has fun with the metaphor the ""furniture of the mind""","Wit and judgement are, like ""two knobbs"" on the back of a chair, ""the highest and most ornamental parts of"" and ""both made and fitted to go together, in order as we say in all such cases of duplicated embellishments,--to answer one another.""","",2011-09-23 19:14:30 UTC,"Vol III, Chapter 20: The Author's Preface"
5088,"",Searching in HDIS (Prose),2004-11-24 00:00:00 UTC,"""Blessed is the man, indeed then, as the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus expresses it, who is not prick'd with the multitude of his sins: Blessed is the man whose heart hath not condemn'd him; whether he be rich, or whether he be poor, if he have a good heart (a heart thus guided and informed) he shall at all times rejoice in a chearful countenance; his mind shall tell him more than seven watch-men that sit above upon a tower on high."" --[A tower has no strength, quoth my uncle Toby, unless 'tis flank'd.] ""In the darkest doubts it shall conduct him safer than a thousand casuists, and give the state he lives in a better security for his behaviour than all the clauses and restrictions put together, which law-makers are forced to multiply: -- Forced, I say, as things stand; human laws not being a matter of original choice, but of pure necessity, brought in to fence against the mischievous effects of those consciences which are no law unto themselves; well intending, by the many provisions made,--that in all such corrupt and misguided cases, where principles and the checks of conscience will not make us upright,--to supply their force, and, by the terrors of goals and halters, oblige us to it.""
(pp. 128-30; Norton 95-6)",2011-09-23,13732,•I've included twice: Watchmen and Tower,"""Blessed is the man whose heart hath not condemn'd him; whether he be rich, or whether he be poor, if he have a good heart (a heart thus guided and informed) he shall at all times rejoice in a chearful countenance; his mind shall tell him more than seven watch-men that sit above upon a tower on high.""",Inhabitants,2011-09-23 19:31:15 UTC,"Volume II, Chapter 17. The Sermon read by Trim"
5088,"",Searching HDIS (Prose),2005-03-11 00:00:00 UTC,"There was a frankness in my uncle Toby, --not the effect of familiarity,--but the cause of it,--which let you at once into his soul, and shewed you the goodness of his nature; to this, there was something in his looks, and voice, and manner, superadded, which eternally beckoned to the unfortunate to come and take shelter under him; so that before my uncle Toby had half finished the kind offers he was making to the father, had the son insensibly pressed up close to his knees, and had taken hold of the breast of his coat, and was pulling it towards him. --The blood and spirits of Le Fever, which were waxing cold and slow within him, and were retreating to their last citadel, the heart,--rallied back, the film forsook his eyes for a moment,--he looked up wishfully in my uncle Toby's face,--then cast a look upon his boy,--and that ligament, fine as it was,--was never broken.--
(pp. 44-5)",2008-10-07,13739,"","""The blood and spirits of Le Fever, which were waxing cold and slow within him, and were retreating to their last citadel, the heart,--rallied back""","",2009-09-14 19:39:06 UTC,"Vol. 6, Chap. 10"
5088,"","Searching ""cell"" and ""brain"" in HDIS (Prose)",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Why, there is not time for a man to be sick in it, replied he--What a cursed lyar! for I am sick as a horse, quoth I, already--what a brain!--upside down!--hey dey! the cells are broke loose one into another, and the blood, and the lymph, and the nervous juices, with the fix'd and volatile salts, are all jumbled into one mass--good g---! every thing turns round in it like a thousand whirlpools --I'd give a shilling to know if I shan't write the clearer for it--
(VII.ii, pp. 8)",2008-10-07,13743,"","""What a cursed lyar! for I am sick as a horse, quoth I, already--what a brain!--upside down!--hey dey! the cells are broke loose one into another, and the blood, and the lymph, and the nervous juices, with the fix'd and volatile salts, are all jumbled into one mass--good g---! every thing turns round in it like a thousand whirlpools""",Rooms,2012-07-05 16:04:38 UTC,"Vol. 7, Chap. 2"
5088,"",Reading. Text from ECCO-TCP.,2016-02-18 15:52:29 UTC,"He has so,--replied my uncle Toby.--I knew it, said my father;--tho', for the soul of me, I cannot see what kind of connection there can be betwixt Dr. Slop's sudden coming, and a discourse upon fortification;--yet I fear'd it.--Talk of what we will, brother,--or let the occasion be never so foreign or unfit for the subject,--you are sure to bring it in: I would not, brother Toby, continued my father,--I declare I would not have my head so full of curtins and horn-works.--That, I dare say, you would not, quoth Dr. Slop, interrupting him, and laughing most immoderately at his pun.
(II.xii, pp. 72-3)",,24822,The pun converts the metaphor of mind to bawdy: horns of adultery on his head.,"""I would not, brother Toby, continued my father,--I declare I would not have my head so full of curtins and horn-works.""","",2016-02-19 04:21:05 UTC,"Vol. II, Chap. xii"
5088,"",Reading. Text from ECCO-TCP,2016-02-19 04:49:31 UTC,"Now, as it was plain to my father, that all souls were by nature equal,--and that the great difference between the most acute and the most obtuse understanding, --was from no original sharpness or bluntness of one thinking substance above or below another,--but arose merely from the lucky or unlucky organization of the body, in that part where the soul principally took up her residence,--he had made it the subject of his enquiry to find out the identical place.
Now, from the best accounts he had been able to get of this matter, he was satisfied it could not be where Des Cartes had fixed it, upon the top of the pineal gland of the brain; which, as he philosophised, formed a cushion for her about the size of a marrow pea; tho' to speak the truth, as so many nerves did terminate all in that one place,--'twas no bad conjecture;--and my father had certainly fallen with that great philosopher plumb into the center of the mistake, had it not been for my uncle Toby, who rescued him out of it, by a story he told him of a Walloon officer at the battle of Landen, who had one part of his brain shot away by a musket-ball,--and another part of it taken out after by a French surgeon; and, after all, recovered, and did his duty very well without it.
If death, said my father, reasoning with himself, is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body;--and if it is true that people can walk about and do their business without brains,--then certes the soul does not inhabit there. Q. E. D.
(II.xix, pp. 166-8)",,24826,"","""Now, as it was plain to my father, that all souls were by nature equal,--and that the great difference between the most acute and the most obtuse understanding, --was from no original sharpness or bluntness of one thinking substance above or below another,--but arose merely from the lucky or unlucky organization of the body, in that part where the soul principally took up her residence,--he had made it the subject of his enquiry to find out the identical place.""","",2016-02-19 04:49:31 UTC,"Vol. II, Chap. xix"