text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"That the general Maxims, we are discoursing of, are not known to Children, Ideots, and a great part of Mankind we have already sufficiently proved: whereby it is evident, they have not an universal assent, nor are general Impressions. But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them: And 'tis, in my Opinion, a strong Presumption, that they are not innate; since they are not in the least known to those, in whom, if they were innate, they must needs exert themselves with most Force and Vigour. For Children, Ideots, Savages, and illiterate People, being of all others the least corrupted by Custom, or borrowed Opinions; Learning, and Education, having not cast their Native thoughts into new Moulds; nor by super-inducing foreign and studied Doctrines, confounded those fair Characters Nature had written there, one might reasonably imagine, that in their Minds these innate Notions should lie open fairly to every one's view, as 'tis certain the thoughts of Children do. It might be very well expected, that these Principles should be perfectly known to Naturals; which being stamped immediately on the Soul (as these Men suppose) can have no dependence on the Constitutions, or Organs of the Body, the only confessed difference between them and others. One would think, according to these Men's Principles, That all these native Beams of Light (were there any such) should in those, who have no Reserves, no Arts of Concealment, shine out in their full Lustre, and leave us in no more doubt of their being there, than we are of their love of Pleasure, and abhorrence of Pain. But alas, amongst Children, Ideots, and Savages, and the grosly Illiterate, what general Maxims are to be found? What universal Principles of Knowledge? Their Notions are few and narrow, borrowed only from those Objects, they have had the most to do with, and which have made upon their Senses the frequentest and strongest Impressions.
(I.ii.27)",2011-05-26 03:39:27 UTC,"""But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them.""",2003-09-04 00:00:00 UTC,I.ii.27,Innate Ideas,2011-05-23,Impressions,"• There is a lot happening in this passage. You can almost see Locke's language uncoil and strike. Locke's parting shot in Book I, Chapter ii",Reading,9930,3866
"Hence naturally flows the great variety of Opinions, concerning Moral Rules, which are to be found amongst Men, according to the different sorts of Happiness, they have a Prospect of, or propose to themselves: Which could not be, if practical Principles were innate, and imprinted in our Minds immediately by the Hand of God.
(I.iii.6)",2011-05-26 03:31:59 UTC,"""Hence naturally flows the great variety of Opinions, concerning Moral Rules, which are to be found amongst Men, according to the different sorts of Happiness, they have a Prospect of, or propose to themselves: Which could not be, if practical Principles were innate, and imprinted in our Minds immediately by the Hand of God.""",2003-09-04 00:00:00 UTC,I.iii.6,"",,Impression,"•In a following ¶ Locke writes ""without being written on their Hearts, many Men, may, by the same way that they come to Knowledge of other things, come to assent to several Moral Rules, and be convinced of their Obligation"" (I.iii.8).",Reading,9935,3866
"If it has no memory of its own Thoughts; if it cannot lay them up for its use, and be able to recal them upon occasion; if it cannot reflect upon what is past, and make use of its former Experiences, Reasonings, and Contemplations to what purpose does it think? They who make the Soul a thinking Thing at this rate, will not make it a much more noble Being, than those do, whom they condemn, for allowing it to be nothing but the subtilest parts of Matter. Characters drawn on Dust, that the first breath of wind effaces; or Impressions made on a heap of Atoms, or animal Spirits, are altogether as useful, and render the Subject as noble, as the Thoughts of a Soul that perish in thinking; that once out of sight, are gone for ever, and leave no memory of themselves behind them. Nature never makes excellent things, for mean or no uses: and it is hardly to be conceived, that our infinitely wise Creator, should make so admirable a Faculty, as the power of Thinking, that Faculty which comes nearest the Excellency of his own incomprehensible Being, to be so idlely and uselessly employ'd, at least 1/4 part of its time here, as to think constantly, without remembering any of those Thoughts, without doing any good to it self or others, or being any way useful to any other part of Creation.
(II.i.15)",2011-05-30 18:46:31 UTC,"""Characters drawn on Dust, that the first breath of wind effaces; or Impressions made on a heap of Atoms, or animal Spirits, are altogether as useful, and render the Subject as noble, as the Thoughts of a Soul that perish in thinking; that once out of sight, are gone for ever, and leave no memory of themselves behind them.""",2003-09-06 00:00:00 UTC,II.i.15. On the suggestion that a man may think while he sleeps but does not remember it,"",2004-06-24,Impressions,"•I've included twice: Writing and Body. (6/24/2004)
•Cross-reference: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's poem ""Epistle [to Lord Bathurst]""
•Cross-reference: Johnson uses in his Dictionary, illustrates third entry under Thought. ",Reading,9947,3866
"In this Part, the Understanding is meerly passive; and whether or no, it will have these Beginnings, and as it were materials of Knowledge, is not in its own Power. For the Objects of our Senses, do, many of them, obtrude their particular Ideas upon our minds, whether we will or no: And the Operations of our minds, will not let us be without, at least some obscure Notions of them. No Man, canbe wholly ignorant of what he does, when he thinks. These simple Ideas, when offered to the mind, the Understanding can no more refuse to have, nor alter, when they are imprinted, nor blot them out, and make new ones in it self, than a mirror can refuse, alter, or obliterate the Images or Ideas, which, the Objects set before it, do therein produce. As the Bodies that surround us, do diversly affect our Organs, the mind is forced to receive the Impressions; and cannot avoid the Perception of those Ideas that are annexed to them.
(II.i.25)",2014-07-29 15:15:29 UTC,"""These simple Ideas, when offered to the mind, the Understanding can no more refuse to have, nor alter, when they are imprinted, nor blot them out, and make new ones in it self, than a mirror can refuse, alter, or obliterate the Images or Ideas, which, the Objects set before it, do therein produce.""",2003-09-06 00:00:00 UTC,II.i.25.,"",,"Impressions, Mirror, and Writing","•INTEREST. IMPORTANT METAPHOR. I've included thrice: Mirror, Imprint, Blot.
•""The passivity of the understanding""","Reading. Found again searching ""mind"" and ""mirror"" in Past Masters. See also Jonathan Miller, On Reflection (London: National Gallery Publications, 1998), 207.",9949,3866
"Thus we should address our selves to the Work of Lord, with an intire Resignation of our selves to his Wisdom and Soveraignty. The Heart must be Tabula Rasa, white Paper to his Pen, soft Wax to his Seal: Let him write upon me what he pleaseth, and make what Impressions he pleaseth upon me. We must enter upon the Service fo God, with Joshua's Question, What saith my Lord unto his Servant? And with St. Paul's, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And with the implicite Faith and Obedience of the Child Samuel, Speak Lord, for thy Servant hears. I desire nothing more, but the Honour of receiving they Commands, and a Heart to comply with them.
(p. 20)",2012-01-20 22:36:34 UTC,"""The Heart must be Tabula Rasa, white Paper to his Pen, soft Wax to his Seal: Let him write upon me what he pleaseth, and make what Impressions he pleaseth upon me.""",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"",Blank Slate,2012-01-20,Writing,"•I've included three times: Tabula Rasa, Paper, Wax","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",10875,4195
"The more thy years, the nearer thy grave.
Youth and white paper take any impression.
(p. 24)",2011-06-28 03:27:55 UTC,"""Youth and white paper take any impression.""",2011-06-28 03:27:55 UTC,"","",,Writing,"",Searching in Google Books,18838,3326
"ยง. 1. Though God has given us no innate Ideas of himself; though he has stamped no original Characters in our Minds, wherein we may read his Being: yet having furnished us with those Faculties, our Minds are endowed with, he hath not left himself without witness: since we have Sense, Perception, and Reason, and cannot want a clear proof of him, as long as we carry our selves about us. Nor can we justly complain of our Ignorance in this great Point, since he has so plentifully provided us with the means to discover, and know him, so far as is necessary to the end of our Being, and the great concernment of our Happiness. But though this be the most obvious Truth that Reason discovers; and though its Evidence be (if I mistake not) equal to mathematical Certainty: yet it requires Thought and Attention; and the Mind must apply its self to a regular deduction of it from some unquestionable parts of our Knowledge, or else we shall be as uncertain, and ignorant of this, as of other Propositions, which are in themselves capable of clear Demonstration. To shew therefore, that we are capable of knowing, certainly knowing that there is a God, and how we come by it, I think we need look no farther than our selves, and that undoubted Knowledge we have of our own Existence.
(IV.x.1, p. 312 in 1690 ed.)",2013-09-17 17:11:23 UTC,"""Though God has given us no innate Ideas of himself; though he has stamped no original Characters in our Minds, wherein we may read his Being: yet having furnished us with those Faculties, our Minds are endowed with, he hath not left himself without witness: since we have Sense, Perception, and Reason, and cannot want a clear proof of him, as long as we carry our selves about us.""",2013-09-17 17:11:23 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,"",Reading; text from EEBO-TCP,22774,3866
"Against the Tiber's mouth, but far away,
An ancient town was seated on the sea;
A Tyrian colony; the people made
Stout for the war, and studious of their trade:
Carthage the name; belov'd by Juno more
Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore.
Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav'n were kind,
The seat of awful empire she design'd.
Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly,
(Long cited by the people of the sky,)
That times to come should see the Trojan race
Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface;
Nor thus confin'd, the yoke of sov'reign sway
Should on the necks of all the nations lay.
She ponder'd this, and fear'd it was in fate;
Nor could forget the war she wag'd of late
For conqu'ring Greece against the Trojan state.
Besides, long causes working in her mind,
And secret seeds of envy, lay behind;
Deep graven in her heart the doom remain'd
Of partial Paris, and her form disdain'd;
The grace bestow'd on ravish'd Ganymed,
Electra's glories, and her injur'd bed.
Each was a cause alone; and all combin'd
To kindle vengeance in her haughty mind.
For this, far distant from the Latian coast
She drove the remnants of the Trojan host;
And sev'n long years th' unhappy wand'ring train
Were toss'd by storms, and scatter'd thro' the main.
Such time, such toil, requir'd the Roman name,
Such length of labor for so vast a frame.
(Book I, ll. 19-49)",2016-02-15 16:32:56 UTC,"""Besides, long causes working in her mind, / And secret seeds of envy, lay behind; / Deep graven in her heart the doom remain'd / Of partial Paris, and her form disdain'd; / The grace bestow'd on ravish'd Ganymed, / Electra's glories, and her injur'd bed.""",2016-02-15 16:32:56 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,24805,3322