work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3489,"","Reading Bamborough's The Little World of Man, p. 15.",2004-07-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Man is a lump, where all beasts kneaded be,
Wisdom makes him an ark where all agree;
The fool, in whom these beasts do live at jar,
Is sport to others and a theatre,
Nor 'scapes he so, but is himself their prey;
All which was man in him is eat away,
And now his beasts on one another feed,
Yet couple in anger, and new monsters breed;
How happy is he, which hath due place assigned
To his beasts, and disafforested his mind!
Empaled himself to keep them out, not in;
Can sow, and dares trust corn, where they have been;
Can use his horse, goat, wolf, and every beast,
And is not ass himself to all the rest.
Else, man not only is the herd of swine,
But he's those devils too, which did incline
Them to a headlong rage, and made them worse:
For man can add weight to heaven's heaviest curse.
As souls (they say) by our first touch, take in
The poisonous tincture of original sin,
So to the punishments which God doth fling,
Our apprehension contributes the sting.
To us, as to his chickens, he doth cast
Hemlock, and we as men, his hemlock taste.
We do infuse to what he meant for meat,
Corrosiveness, or intense cold or heat.
For, God no such specific poision hath
As kills we know not how; his fiercest wrath
Hath no antipathy, but may be good
At least for physic, if not for our food.
Thus man, that might be his pleasure, is his rod,
And is his devil, that might be his God.
Since then our business is, to rectify
Nature, to what she was, we are led awry
By them, who man to us in little show,
Greater than due, no form we can bestow
On him; for man into himself can draw
All, all his faith can swallow, or reason chaw,
All that is filled, and all that which doth fill,
All the round world, to man is but a pill;
In all it works not, but it is in all
Poisonous, or purgative, or cordial,
For, knowledge kindles calentures in some,
And is to others icy opium.
As brave as true, is that profession then
Which you do use to make; that you know man.
This makes it credible, you have dwelt upon
All worthy books, and now are such a one.
Actions are authors, and of those in you
Your friends find every day a mart of new.
(pp. 200-1)",,8949,"","Man ""into himself can draw / All, all his faith can swallow, or reason chaw ... All the round world, to man is but a pill.""","",2013-06-10 18:04:04 UTC,I've included the entire poem
3620,Mind's Eye,"Searching ""mind"" and ""eye"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-04-17 00:00:00 UTC,"O avarice! for Gold, and Silver's prize,
The golden Truth, thou 'ast turn'd to drossy Lyes!
Best things corrupted prove the worst of all:
By Rome's false Limbo, doth true LIMBO fall.
The Christian Churches first blest Founders sure,
Their Streams delated from the Fountain pure:
Heav'n put that breath into their mouths, which they
Inspired thus, to others did conveigh.
The holy Ghost upon them breath'd, nor was
Their Words corrupted by an humane glosse.
Then flourish'd Truth, and all our Hyerarchie
Rejoyc'd so pure a Church on Earth to see.
No pitchy clouds of error then did presse
'Twixt their eyes, and the Sun of Righteousnesse;
The Truth shon then as clear, as doth the Sun
Mounted in 's golden Chariot, at noon.
(Christs Church sees clearly still where e'r it be
Scatter'd, through others; and the Head is he)
But envious Sathan, when he saw Truth so
Extreamly spread, and o're the World to grow;
He sew'd his Tares of Errors, and did blind
With clouds of darknesse, Man's true eye, the Mind.
These faster than the true Wheat grew; this crop
Of evil weeds, did soon the Wheat o're-top.
Darknesse grew on apace; anon the Day
Could not its Light but here and there display,
Th'rough the small cranies of dark clouds: then 'twas
Pride, and Ambition in Rome's Church took place:
Then crept in all those Ceremonies; then
The Truth gave place unto the wiles of Men.
Then Avarice, with her hook'd Talons made
Such Laws, which turn'd Religion to a Trade,
And for the Love of Money did disguise
Fair Truth, and cloath'd her with a pack of Lies.
Something of precious Truth; something of Day,
Under disguise; under the clouds there lay.
Your Silver ISIS about Chelsy's not,
The same, as where his bubling springs do put
First forth their Crystal Heads near Thorlton, for
Churne's, Windrushe's, and Cherwell's waters there
And Tame's, Coln's, Brents, with his clear streams do run:
So on the other side he entertain
Doth Ock, Lad, Kennet, Surrie's Rivers too,
Whose severe Waters with his mingle do:
Yet with these may at Chelsy run the same
Pure waters, which from his clear spring-head came.
So pure Religion's streams, by this time had
With many of Hel's Stygian stream-lets spread,
Which were polluted with their Waters, yet
Amongst them Truth's pure Crystal streams did flit,
But so bemudded that they scarce were seen
But by those clear eyes who did dive for them.
The snowy flow'r is mixed with the Bran:
The chaff with Wheat; one sift the other fan
We must: not fling them both away, and make
Th' one uselesse for us, for the other's sake.
We must beware when that the Tares we cull,
Lest we with them the Wheat up also pull.
Fifteen Cent'ries, and two decades of years,
After Christ's death, from Isleben appears
A Light by which Rome's muddy streams were seen,
By which the Truth men strove to cull between
Error's black clouds; But Zeal them so possest,
They her rejected, 'cause by Rome's hands drest.
So fearful were they of a Romish dresse,
That Truth they 'ad rather leave, than her possesse
In that false Habit; many Truth's despis'd
Were thus, because by Rome they were disguis'd.
Among the rest, and not the least, this place,
This Region which thou now behold'st, one was:
And 'cause Rome's fopperies had obscur'd the Light
Of it, forsooth they it discarded quite:
And by the ears it from existence whorry,
For fear of entertaining Purgatory.",2011-12-21,9405,"","""He [Satan] sew'd his Tares of Errors, and did blind / With clouds of darknesse, Man's true eye, the Mind.""",Eye,2011-12-21 18:10:56 UTC,""
3620,Mind's Eye,"Searching ""mind"" and ""eye"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-04-17 00:00:00 UTC,"But mark that next Dish, where green Leaves inclose
Fruit which in scarlet Robes out-braves the Rose:
So fulgent Rubies court, and charm the eye,
When with clear Smuragds they invelop'd lye;
The Pestum flower peeps th'row her infant Skreen,
With paler blushes, wrap'd with duller green.
The juyce of these impregnates strait the Brain,
Not with discourses Kicksie, nor with vain
Disputes: true Logic art it doth diffuse,
And teaches Syllogisms how to use
For Heav'n's own int'rest: True Dilemma's too
Can by infusion to the Taster shew.
This doth the understanding purge; the eye
O'th' Soul, the Mind from Motes do purifie:
This Reason doth illuminate, and shews
How the true Dialectic Art to use:
Reason's corruptions, spots, and fallacies
This purgeth out: and gives it purer eyes.
This giveth Armes unto Truth's Champions, and
Inables them in Dispute's Wars to stand.
This unto Paul was borne by some of us,
When He with Beasts battail'd at Ephesus:
By this at Athens, to the Schoole he flew,
And th' Epicures, and Stoicks overthrew
With solid Arguments. This means did show
His persecutors how to overthrow:
The Jewish Rabbies, Gentile Doctors, Mute
At last were made: 'gainst him was no dispute.",,9406,"","""This doth the understanding purge; the eye / O'th' Soul, the Mind from Motes do purifie.""",Eye,2011-12-21 18:09:13 UTC,""
3620,Mind's Eye,"Searching ""mind"" and ""eye"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-04-17 00:00:00 UTC,"That third Dish where in Seas of Beauties wallow
The slick-skin fruits; bestrip't with Red, and Yellow;
Screening their Virtues, in a double fold,
Of Crimson, Satin, and of yellow Gold:
The ground is Gold, upon whose face is spread
A thousand striplets of a grain-dy'd Red.
That Dish contains fruit of unvalued prize,
Whose sacred virtue makes man truly wise.
That Magic makes, and true Philosophers,
That Wisdom, and true Knowledge still infers.
Those Fruits unlock the fast-shut Cabinet
Of Nature, and her Treasures open set:
Nature's true Jewels rol'd in pitch do lye,
Not to be seen but by an Heav'nly Eye
And such an one these give: an Eye that looks
Upon, and reads her most mysterious Books.
An Eye that thorow Neptune's Region goes,
And all things in his brinish Kingdom knows,
An Eye that walketh thorow all the Mines,
An Eye that to Earth's solid Centre shines:
An Eye which doth perspicuously see,
What virtues, in all Vegitables be;
That the true Nature of all things that grow,
From the tall Cedar, to the shrub, doth know:
An Eye that from the Earth to Heav'n doth rise,
And rangeth th'rough the myst'ries of the Skies:
That views the stations of the Wanderers,
That sees the mansion of the Northern Bears:
That knows the nature of those glittering Fires,
That reads their Lectures: and Heav'n's Hand admires;
That knows their good, and evil influence,
They on the World, and Mortals do dispence;
That knows the causes of all natural things,
Seas, and Earth's motions, and the Winds swift wings;
The streaming Metours, and the blazing Stars,
The hairy Comets sad predicts of Wars;
That truly sees, and knoweth all the parts
O'th' Ptolomic, and Eucledean Arts.
These sacred Fruits besides all these disclose
Nature's hid Magic, which th' unwise oppose,
The Ancients wisdom, whereby they could do
Things wonderful, yet natural, and true;
Not jugling tricks: nor by ill Spirits might,
But by Dame Nature's just, and sacred Light;
Almost extinct now in the World; unknown
'Cause men have sought præstigiæ of their own,
And following airy Notions caught the shade,
Whilst the true substance did their hands evade.
Such are the Virtues of these Fruits divine,
Which with such matchless lustrous Beauties shines.
Of these the Father of the Faithful eat,
Sucking true Wisdom from the blessed meat,
And those who liv'd nine Ages to descry
The Planets dances in the azure Skye.
Great Salomon that mighty Magus had
His Wisdom and his Rnowledge from this food:
This sacred Fruit was lovely to his eyes,
For he this more than 's Crown, or Gold did prize.
He wisely said, For all things there a Time
Was; did but Mortals on the Earthly clime
Exactly know the same, they would not err
So oft, and toys to precious Gemms prefer:
Of Wisdom it no Mean part is to know,
The means not only but the Time to do:
For what these blessed Fruits so freely give,
Men in all Ages after deeply dive,
Nor is't unlawful for them to do so,
Did they true Time take, and right Wayes to go;
Else all is vanity: For what's all this
If Man should know 't, and yet ignore his Blisse?
On this the King pitched his Mind's clear eye,
When he cry'd out, all things are vanity.
What are these Jewels, though they Jewels be,
If Man's not lure of Æternity?
These are no means to gain the Heav'nly Race,
These are but Crowns for those that gaine the space.
They are unwise who first do seek those Arts,
Before that they have circumcis'd their Hearts:
For what they gain before is vanity,
What afterwards our King doth sanctifie.
What men acquire, they usually abuse it,
What Heav'n himself gives, he shews how to use it.
Let Man therefore the Time observe, and see
To gain Heav'n first: these but additions be.",,9407,"","""On this the King pitched his Mind's clear eye, / When he cry'd out, all things are vanity.""",Eye,2009-09-14 19:34:12 UTC,""
3768,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-06-07 00:00:00 UTC,"Physian Fields are aloft in the Moon,
The Sophister was up too soon.
Pythagoras saw Hesiod's Soul ty'd
To Brass-Pillars, wept and cry'd;
For fear like a new married Bride,
That had nothing to lose, beside
Her Maiden-head, which she could not hide.
And truly never was deny'd;
The Maid was willing, when she try'd;",,9721,"","""Pythagoras saw Hesiod's Soul ty'd / To Brass-Pillars, wept and cry'd;""",Fetters,2009-09-14 19:34:26 UTC,Listed under Minor Burlesques and Travesties
3863,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2006-02-22 00:00:00 UTC," Th' ambitious, who to place aspire,
When rais'd to that they did pretend,
Are restless still, would still be higher;
For that's a Passion has no end.
'Tis the minds Wolf, a strange Disease,
That ev'n Saciety can't appease,
An Appetite of such a kind,
As does by feeding still increase,
And is to eat, the more it eats, inclin'd.
As the Ambitious mount the Sky,
New prospects still allure the Eye,
Which makes them upwards still to fly;
Till from the utmost height of all,
Fainting in their Endeavour, down they fall,
And lower, than at first they were, at last do lye.",,9915,•I've included twice: Wolf and Disease.,"The passion ambition ""'Tis the minds Wolf, a strange Disease, / That ev'n Saciety can't appease""","",2009-09-14 19:34:34 UTC,""
4353,"",Reading,2011-07-18 18:37:48 UTC,"UNHAPPY Man! Who thro' successive Years
From early Youth to Life's last Childhood Errs;
No sooner Born, but proves a Foe to Truth;
For Infant Reason is o'er power'd in Youth:
The Cheats of Sense will half our Learning share;
And Pre-Conceptions all our Knowledge are.
Reason, 'tis true, shou'd over Sense Preside,
Correct our Notions, and our Judgment Guide;
But false Opinions, rooted in the Mind,
Hoodwink the Soul, and keep our Reason Blind.
Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns,
A languid Flame that glows and dyes by Turns;
We see't a while, and but a little Way,
We Travel by its Light as Men by Day.
But quickly Dying, it forsakes us soon,
Like Morning Stars, that never stay till Noon.
(pp. 3-4)",,18905,"","""Reason, 'tis true, shou'd over Sense Preside, / Correct our Notions, and our Judgment Guide; / But false Opinions, rooted in the Mind, / Hoodwink the Soul, and keep our Reason Blind.""","",2011-07-18 18:37:48 UTC,""
3946,"",Reading in EEBO,2011-07-18 19:36:25 UTC,"Unhappy Man who through successive years
To Life's last Ebb, from early Childhood Errs!
No sooner born, but proves a Foe to Truth:
For Infant Reason is o'er powr'd in Youth;
The Cheats of sense will half our Learning share:
And Preconceptions all our knowledge are.
Reason 'tis true, should over sense preside,
Correct our Notions and our Judgments guide;
But false Opinions, rooted in the mind
Hood-wink the Soul, and keep the Reason blind;
Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns:
A Languid Flame that glows and dies by turns:
We see't a while, and but a little way
We travel by its Light, as Men by Day;
But quickly dying, it forsakes us soon;
Like Morning Stars that never stay till Noon.
(p. 5)",,18913,"CROSS-REFERENCE: these lines also appear in ""Reason: A Poem""","""Reason 'tis true, should over sense preside, / Correct our Notions and our Judgments guide; / But false Opinions, rooted in the mind / Hood-wink the Soul, and keep the Reason blind.""","",2011-07-18 19:36:25 UTC,""