work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3736,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""impression"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Tho lawless Boors should insolently prat,
And still exclaim against they know not what;
Tho some of higher rank should now give o'r
And pay not Suite and Presence, as before;
Yet let not this, GREAT SIR, discourage you,
Nor from thence judge the Loyal to be few:
For These all things dislike, and have a trick
T' oppose the Pow'rs, and spurne against the prick.
In their own dye the Latter soon appear,
To change their minds, as th' Air-fed beast, by fear,
His colour alters; to be Fortunes Apes,
And with the times to vary in all shapes.
So the most precious Sun's regarded less
By those, to whom he daily makes address;
But where he enters Stranger, his arise
Gets a kind Welcome from all glaring eyes.
To you, GREAT SIR, we offer up the Key
Of our close bow'rs, may't please you to survey
Our breasts; and of a Scots heart take a view,
As small as any English, and as true.
Here your dear Memory shall be inshrin'd,
And deep impression bear upon our mind;
Here, what transported Tongues cannot express,
'Tis legible, and in a better dress
Then my obedient Muse can ere digest:
But to the Chanc'lour I referr the rest.",2011-06-05,9655,"","""Here your dear Memory shall be inshrin'd, / And deep impression bear upon our mind.""",Impression,2011-06-06 03:03:20 UTC,""
4178,"",Past Masters,2004-02-26 00:00:00 UTC,"HYLAS. Explain to me now, O Philonous! how it is possible there should be room for all those trees and houses to exist in your mind. Can extended things be contained in that which is unextended? Or are we to imagine impressions made on a thing void of all solidity? You cannot say objects are in your mind, as books in your study: or that things are imprinted on it, as the figure of a seal upon wax. In what sense therefore are we to understand those expressions? Explain me this if you can: and I shall then be able to answer all those queries you formerly put to me about my substratum.
PHILONOUS. Look you, Hylas, when I speak of objects as existing in the mind or imprinted on the senses; I would not be understood in the gross literal sense, as when bodies are said to exist in a place, or a seal to make an impression upon wax. My meaning is only that the mind comprehends or perceives them; and that it is affected from without, or by some being distinct from itself. This is my explication of your difficulty; and how it can serve to make your tenet of an unperceiving material substratum intelligible, I would fain know.
HYLAS. Nay, if that be all, I confess I do not see what use can be made of it. But are you not guilty of some abuse of language in this?
PHILONOUS. None at all: it is no more than common custom, which you know is the rule of language, hath authorized: nothing being more usual, than for philosophers to speak of the immediate objects of the understanding as things existing in the mind. Nor is there any thing in this, but what is conformable to the general analogy of language; most part of the mental operations being signified by words borrowed from sensible things; as is plain in the terms comprehend, reflect, discourse, &c. which being applied to the mind, must not be taken in their gross original sense.
(Vol ii, p. 241)
",,10848,"•INTEREST. Metaphors and anti-metaphors, figurative language and ordinary language.
•Both of the metaphors most readily associated with Locke (inscribed surface/container) are here denied.
•I had two entries: they were split into two metaphors room/wax. I deleted the second.
","""You cannot say objects are in your mind, as books in your study: or that things are imprinted on it, as the figure of a seal upon wax.""",Impressions and Rooms,2013-09-12 04:08:26 UTC,Third Dialogue
5559,"","Found again searching ""stamp"" and ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO-TCP.",2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Faults in the life breed errors in the brain,
And these, reciprocally, those again.
The mind and conduct mutually imprint
And stamp their image in each other's mint.
Each, sire and dam of an infernal race,
Begetting and conceiving all that's base.
(ll. 564-569, p. 278; cf. p. 69 in 1782 ed.)",2012-04-10,14852,"At least 6 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1782, 1790, 1794, 1798, 1800).
•Cross-reference: Goldsmith's Retaliation: ""Here lies honest William, whose heart was a mint,"" (l. 43). See also Yorick's comparison of English and French characters and th entries concerned with treasure.
•INTEREST. Use in dissertation.","""The mind and conduct mutually imprint / And stamp their image in each other's mint.""",Coinage and Impressions,2014-07-13 16:24:39 UTC,""
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 18:48:05 UTC,"2. But that which imposes upon Mens Judgements here, so as to make them think, that these are all Passive Impressions made upon the Soul by the Objects of Sense, is nothing else but this; because the Notions both of those Relative Ideas, and also of those other other Immaterial things, (as Vertue, Wisdom, the Soul, God) are most Commonly Excited and awakened occasionally from the Appulse of Outward Objects knocking at the Doors of our Senses. And these Men not distinguishing betwixt the Outward Occasion or Invitation of those Cogitations, and the immediate Active or Productive Cause of them, impute them therefore all alike, as well these intelligible, as the other Sensible Ideas, or Phantasms, to the Efficiency or Activity of the, outward Objects upon us. Wherefore that we may the better understand how far the Passion of Sense reaches, and where the Activity of the Mind begins, we will compare these three Things together: First, a Mirror, Looking-glass or Crystal Globe; Secondly, a Living Eye, that is, a Seeing or Perceptive Mirror or Looking-glass; Thirdly, a Mind or Intellect Superadded to this Living Eye or Seeing Mirror.
(IV.ii.2, pp. 149-150)",,19494,"","""But that which imposes upon Mens Judgements here, so as to make them think, that these are all Passive Impressions made upon the Soul by the Objects of Sense, is nothing else but this; because the Notions both of those Relative Ideas, and also of those other other Immaterial things, (as Vertue, Wisdom, the Soul, God) are most Commonly Excited and awakened occasionally from the Appulse of Outward Objects knocking at the Doors of our Senses.""",Impressions and Rooms,2012-01-22 18:51:05 UTC,"Book IV, Chapter ii"
3866,"","Reading Arthur A. Cash, ""The Sermon in Tristram Shandy."" ELH 31:4 (1964): 399.",2012-06-12 20:34:32 UTC,"12. Thirdly, probabilities, which cross men's appetites and prevailing passions, run the same fate. Let ever so much probability hang on one side of a covetous man's reasoning, and money on the other; it is easy to foresee which will outweigh. Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them. Tell a man passionately in love, that he is jilted; bring a score of witnesses of the falsehood of his mistress, it is ten to one but three kind words of hers shall invalidate all their testimonies, Quod volumus, facile credits; What suits our wishes, is forwardly believed; is, I suppose, what every one hath more than once experimented: And though men cannot always openly gainsay or resist the force of manifest probabilities that make against them, yet yield they not to the argument. Not but that it is the nature of the understanding constantly to close with the more probable side; but yet a man hath a power to suspend and restrain its inquiries, and not permit a full and satisfactory examination, as far as the matter in question is capable, and will bear it to be made. Until that be done, there will be always these two ways left of evading the most apparent probabilities.
(IV.xx.12)",,19792,"","""Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them.""",Empire and Impressions,2012-06-12 20:34:32 UTC,IV.xx.12
7370,"",Reading,2013-04-02 02:50:10 UTC,"43 First then, 'tis so certainly known, that Similitudes do not use quadrare per omnia, or, (as they say,) run on four Feet, that it is grown Proverbial; which lays a great prejudice upon that Way in common. 2. Similitudes drawn from Material Things, to Immaterial, are particularly liable to this Defect. They may, indeed, oft times, serve to illustrate some Truth, as fit Metaphors to sute with our Fancy; but then they presuppose the Truth, which they are to illustrate, to be known some other Way. Whence, unless this be done first, all they can do is to explicate we know not what, which destroys the nature of an Explication; for, Explications are not intended to put the Truth of the Point, but suppose it. 3. All the Actions of our Soul are, or ought to be Rational; and have a Dependence on one another, by the way of Reason gathering Subsequent Truths from those which preceded. Now, I think, 'tis impossible to be contested by any Man who has read Cartesius's Meditations, but that his Discourses which anteceded his finding out this First Principle of his, are reducible to this Enthymem; [For these and these Reasons, there can no Certainty be had, as to Speculative Knowledges, by any Information had from Outward Objects affecting the Senses; therefore, it ought to be sought for in some Interiour Act of our Mind, which is most Comprehensive and Peculiar to it,] which he concieved was Cogitation; and thence he laid this First Principle: [Cogito ergo sum] Which being so, it follows necessarily, that the Laying this for his First Principle, depended on the Goodness of the Reasons he had, why our Senses were not to be trusted, nor could give us our First Notions; whence, by reflecting on their Metaphysical Verity, we might have those Self-evident, and First Truths, of ours. This, I say, was evidently the Tenour of his Discourse; because, did not those Reasons of his, against the Sufficiency of our Senses to give us this Information, conclude; but that, notwithstanding all those Reasons could prove, the Senses might still imprint on our Mind those First Notions, his Consequent would not have follow'd: Nor, could he have had any Ground for recurring to the Interiour Act of Cogitation, for his First Principle, in regard it had been given to his Hand by means of the Senses, as was now declar'd. 4. It being then evident, that the Substance of those antecedent Discourses was summ'd up in the Enthymem now mention'd, 'tis manifest, that this Explication of yours falters in the main Particular, in which it ought to sute, and resemble. For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundation; for, the Holes were already made in those Inlets, our Senses; which were Pervious to the Effluviums affecting the Seat of Knowledge; and thence, the Soul. So that your Similitude is, in effect, the Begging the whole Question; and can have no Force at all, but by our Granting it; which, I see plainly, we shall never have Reason to do. Rather, unless this Petitio Principii (which is tacitly involv'd in this Parallel) be yielded by us, or prov'd by you, it makes against your selves. For, by Denying all such certain Information from the Senses, you will be found, not to remove the Rubbish, in order to lay the Foundation; but, to stop up the Way to the laying any; and, to damm up all the Holes, by which the Materials could come into our Minds, where only such a Foundation could have been laid. At least, you see, your Explication amounts to nothing; and, that your Similitude is lame in all its Legs, and has not one Sure Foot to stand on. Which will, I hope, sufficiently inform others, that this Way of Explicating, so mightily affected by Cartesius, and his Followers, is utterly Insignificant. I shall hope too, that this Paper will light into the hands of some Readers, who are so Intelligent, as to discern, that this Explicative Way is taken up, to avoid the Way of Rigorous Proof; which is so Unfriendly to a Doctrine that wants Principles.
(pp. 94-8)",,20091,INTEREST. REVISIT. META-METAPHORICAL.,"""For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundation; for, the Holes were already made in those Inlets, our Senses; which were Pervious to the Effluviums affecting the Seat of Knowledge; and thence, the Soul.""",Throne,2013-04-02 02:50:10 UTC,""
7509,"","Reading Dennis Todd's Imagining Monsters (University of Chicago Press, 1995), 137.
",2013-07-08 19:49:43 UTC,"I now proceed to Memory, which is nothing but the same Imagination acting without the assistance of exterior Objects. To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occasions thereby increases and strengthens itself by degrees, till at last it acquires such a consistency (if I may so call it) as makes it subsist as long as the Machine itself. A Stock of Images having been thus acquired, they each have their respective little Cell or Lodge, where they go and hide. Yet we must not suppose that they are continually in their Retirement; they would become useless if they were so. But on the contrary, great Numbers of them are always going to and fro; and if one of them chances to go by the Cell or Lodge of another which has the least real or imaginary conformity with it, out pops the retired Image, and immediately joins the wandering one. This never so obviously happens, as when a new Image is introduced into the Brain, who as soon as he appears, occasions great Commotions among all the old Inhabitants who either have, or think they have, any resemblance or relation to the new Comers.
(pp. 186-7)",,21523,"","""To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occasions thereby increases and strengthens itself by degrees, till at last it acquires such a consistency (if I may so call it) as makes it subsist as long as the Machine itself. A Stock of Images having been thus acquired, they each have their respective little Cell or Lodge, where they go and hide.""",Impressions and Rooms,2013-07-08 19:53:17 UTC,""
4702,"",Searching and Reading in Google Books,2014-02-05 22:26:40 UTC,"On the contrary, in old Age, Men have a very feeble Remembrance of Things that were done of late, i.e. the same Day or Week or Year; the Brain is grown so hard that the present Images or Strokes make little or no Impression, and therefore they immediately vanish: Prisco in his seventy eighth Year will tell long Stories of Things done when he was in the Battle at the Boyne almost fifty Years ago, and when he studied at Oxford seven Years before; for those Impressions were made when the Brain was more susceptive of them; they have been deeply engraven at the proper season, and therefore they remain. But Words and Things which he lately spoke or did, they are immediately forgot, because the Brain is now grown more dry and solid in its Consistence, and receives not much more impression than if you wrote with your Finger on a Floor of Clay, or a plaister'd Wall.
(p. 256)",,23384,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY. REVISIT.,"""But Words and Things which he lately spoke or did, they are immediately forgot, because the Brain is now grown more dry and solid in its Consistence, and receives not much more impression than if you wrote with your Finger on a Floor of Clay, or a plaister'd Wall.""",Impressions and Writing,2014-02-05 22:26:40 UTC,""
4702,"","Searching and Reading in Google Books
",2014-02-05 22:27:59 UTC,"But in the middle Stage of Life, or it may be from fifteen to fifty Years of Age, the Memory is generally in its happiest State, the Brain easily receives and long retains the Images and Traces which are impress'd upon on it, and the natural Spirits are more active to range these little infinite unknown Figures of Things in their proper Cells or Cavities, to preserve and recollect them.
Whatsoever therefore keeps the Brain in its best Temper and Consistence may be a Help to preserve the Memory: But Excess of Wine or Luxury of any Kind, as well as Excess in the Studies of Learning or the Businesses of Life, may overwhelm the Memory by overstraining and weakening the Fibres of the Brain, over-wasting the Spirits, injuring the true Consistence of that tender Substance, and confounding the Images that are laid up there.
(pp. 256-7)",,23385,"","""But in the middle Stage of Life, or it may be from fifteen to fifty Years of Age, the Memory is generally in its happiest State, the Brain easily receives and long retains the Images and Traces which are impress'd upon on it, and the natural Spirits are more active to range these little infinite unknown Figures of Things in their proper Cells or Cavities, to preserve and recollect them.""",Impressions,2014-02-05 22:27:59 UTC,""
7945,"",Reading (in the British Library),2014-06-22 03:08:34 UTC,"III. We may fetch an Argument of the Wisdom and Providence of God from the convenient situation and disposition of the Parts and Members of our Bodies: They are seated most conveniently for Use, for Ornament, and for mutual Assistance. First, for Use; So we see the Senses of such eminent Use for our well-being, situate in the Head, as Sentinels in a Watch-Tower, to receive and conveigh to the Soul the impressions of external Objects. Sensus autem interpretes ac nutii rerum in capite tanquam in arce mirifice ad usus necessarios & facti & collati sunt. Cic. de Nat. Deorum. [...]
(p. 157)",,24084,"","""First, for Use; So we see the Senses of such eminent Use for our well-being, situate in the Head, as Sentinels in a Watch-Tower, to receive and conveigh to the Soul the impressions of external Objects""",Impressions and Inhabitants,2014-06-22 03:08:34 UTC,""