work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5709,Ruling Passion,"Searching ""ruling passion"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-05-20 00:00:00 UTC,"Good Lord, what is Man! For as simple he looks,
Do but try to develop his hooks and his crooks!
With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil,
All in all he's a problem must puzzle the Devil.
On his one ruling passion Sir Pope hugely labors,
That, like th'old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbours.
Human Nature's his show-box--your friend, would you know him?
Pull the string, Ruling Passion--the picture will show him.
What pity, in rearing so beauteous a system,
One trifling particular--Truth--should have miss'd him!
For, spite of his fine theoretic positions,
Mankind is a science defies definitions.
Some sort all our qualities each to its tribe,
And think Human Nature they truly describe:
Have you found this, or t'other? There's more in the wind,
As by one drunken fellow his comrades you'll find.
But such is the flaw, or the depth of the plan
In the make of that wonderful creature called Man,
No two virtues, whatever relation they claim,
Nor even two different shades of the same,
Though like as was ever twin brother to brother,
Possessing the one shall imply you've the other.
",,15235,•Great anti-metaphor poem. INTEREST.
•Included twice: once in Government and once in Uncategorized.,"""Human Nature's his show-box--your friend, would you know him? / Pull the string, Ruling Passion--the picture will show him.""","",2011-02-05 19:38:00 UTC,Middle Stanzas
5727,"",Reading,2003-07-29 00:00:00 UTC,"'Methinks you angry warrior's head
Doth in its casement frown,
And darts a look, as if it said,
""Where hast thou laid my son?""
'But will these fancies never cease?
O would the night were run!
My troubled soul can find no peace
But with the morning sun.
'Vain hope! the guilty never rest:
Dismay is always near;
There is a midnight in the breast
No morn shall ever cheer.
(ll. 17-28 p. 435)",,15265,"•Conrad is about to meet the ghost of Edward. Note that this is all soliloquy or reported thought.
•I will eventually have to admit ""breast"" (and perhaps) ""head"" as two metonymic words to which my entries will be keyed, along with heart and mind.","""There is a midnight in the breast / No morn shall ever cheer.""","",2013-06-05 17:06:27 UTC,""
6712,"","Searching ""emporium"" and ""brain"" in Google Books",2010-06-07 15:19:55 UTC,"As we are of opinion then, sufficiently founded we suppose, that the different organs are completed only as they become requisite and necessary; consequently, we believe the evolution of the generative organs in both sexes must be among the last efforts of the increase and completion of the body. This evolution could not have taken place earlier. If it had, the mind must have been affected by these impulses which announce the maturation of these organs by which we know the mind and body are connected; but this is not the case. In neither of the sexes is there one idea betrayed, before puberty, of that necessary union of the sexes. They think not about it; because, if you will, they know no more about it, than the infant does of right and wrong. Hence we believe, that the propensities and affections which indicate the maturity and power of organs, are simultaneous with these organs, and the contrary. Besides, these organs, and the ideas originating and combined with them, could not, consistently with the wisdom of Nature, have been brought forward before puberty. In the male, the foundation and powers of maturation, of that strength, and of those more rational qualities which belong to him, are laid before puberty: hence communication with the female, before these are finally arranged and secured, is inefficient, and entails upon him debility both of body and mind. The same thing holds, as far as the same ends are concerned, with respect to the female; and we cannot suppose that Nature could be so idly eccentric, as to punish the female with a disposition or propensity to procreate, before the body was capable of undergoing the various disorders and dangers of pregnancy and parturition. We have already hinted, that for the same, or similar reasons, none of the ordinary organs of sense are qualified to receive or communicate distinct impressions, till the brain, the common emporium of them all, has acquired those properties which must fit it for its arduous offices; and, as in the case already more particularly investigated, the powers of the mind, gradually unfolding themselves simultaneously with the organs of the body which are to support them, countenance the opinion. We are disposed to enter at much length into a metaphysical disquisition, concerning the rise, progress, and connection, of the powers of the body and mind, this part of our enquiry almost necessarily demands it. We shall only observe, however, that it is in the manner which we have been describing, that that power of the mind, which the philosophers of modern times call Common sense, seems to originate, and to be completed. This faculty operates to our conviction, though only with what may be called the rationality of maturity, by an instantaneous, instinctive, and irresistible impulse, not by the slow progress of comparison and argumentation. In infancy and youth it is scarcely perceptible, or very imperfect; and, as we have said, it is only when the different organs of sense have been completely evolved, and all their parts sound and just, that this: power of the mind is finally effectuated and established. This faculty, though it seems essentially different from Reason, is no doubt the origin of it; for the extension of common sense, from memory, of rather from comparison, and what may be called the balance of the senses, constitutes what is called Reason and Judgment. We have said, that while the organs are incomplete, from infancy, or from disease, their communication with the understanding is also unjust and incomplete. Those who have been born blind, or whose eyes have been destroyed in infancy, before they were become useful, have none of those ideas which depend upon the eye; it is the same with the deaf, and in all cases of ideas depending upon one sense: and we may add, as perfectly in our way, the early castrated have no comprehension of, or propensity to, the gratifications of love. In disease, something similar happens, which, though it is not precisely to our purpose, seems to confirm our general ideas. The diseased organ transmits partially or incompletely to the sensorium; and the action of the mind is proportionally erroneous and incomplete. When both eyes are found and active, they communicate in the same instant with what are called corresponding points in the sensorium; that is, two sensations perfectly similar are communicated in the same instant; and therefore, in the sensorium, only one perception can be recorded: But if the communication of one of the eyes is retarded by disease, or by any other circumstance, the progress of sensation becomes unequal, the sensorium will receive two impulses from the same object, though the application to the external organs happened at the fame instant, and hence vision will be double. In the same manner the musician, from a temporary defect, or from accidental disease, in the organ of hearing upon one side, was tortured with the repetition of a single sound; and every boy knows, though disease acts not here, that if he rolls a ball in the hollow of his left hand, by the two first fingers of his right, so firmly plaited over one another that the second is in fact compressed by the first, that he cannot scarcely avoid believing he is rolling a couple of balls at the same time.
(82-88)",,17858,"","""We have already hinted, that for the same, or similar reasons, none of the ordinary organs of sense are qualified to receive or communicate distinct impressions, till the brain, the common emporium of them all, has acquired those properties which must fit it for its arduous offices; and, as in the case already more particularly investigated, the powers of the mind, gradually unfolding themselves simultaneously with the organs of the body which are to support them, countenance the opinion.""","",2010-06-07 15:19:55 UTC,""
5767,"",Reading,2011-03-24 20:41:15 UTC,"Having arrived in London late on Friday, the 15th of March, I hastened next morning to wait on Dr. Johnson, at his house; but found he was removed from Johnson's-court, No. 7, to Bolt-court, No. 8, still keeping to his favourite Fleet-street. My reflection at the time upon this change as marked in my Journal, is as follows: ""I felt a foolish regret that he had left a court which bore his name 2; but it was not foolish to be affected with some tenderness of regard for a place in which I had seen him a great deal, from whence I had often issued a better and a happier man than when I went in, and which had often appeared to my imagination while I trod its pavements, in the solemn darkness of the night, to be sacred to wisdom and piety."" Being informed that he was at Mr. Thrale's, in the Borough, I hastened thither, and found Mrs. Thrale and him at breakfast. I was kindly welcomed. In a moment he was in a full glow of conversation, and I felt myself elevated as if brought into another state of being. Mrs. Thrale and I looked to each other while he talked, and our looks expressed our congenial admiration and affection for him. I shall ever recollect this scene with great pleasure. I exclaimed to her, ""I am now, intellectually, Hermippus redivivus, I am quite restored by him, by transfusion of mind."" ""There are many (she replied) who admire and respect Mr. Johnson; but you and I love him.""
(p. 599)",2011-10-26,18252,"","""I exclaimed to her, 'I am now, intellectually, Hermippus redivivus, I am quite restored by him, by transfusion of mind.'""","",2011-10-26 14:41:17 UTC,"A.D. 1776, Aetat. 67"
5767,"",Reading,2013-03-20 21:36:57 UTC,"I talked to him of misery being ""the doom of man,"" in this life, as displayed in his ""Vanity of Human Wishes."" Yet I observed that things were done upon the supposition of happiness; grand houses were built, fine gardens were made, splendid places of publick amusement were contrived, and crowded with company. Johnson. ""Alas, Sir, these are all only struggles for happiness. When I first entered Ranelagh, it gave an expansion and gay sensation to my mind, such as I never experienced any where else. But, as Xerxes wept when he viewed his immense army, and considered that not one of that great multitude would be alive a hundred years afterwards, so it went to my heart to consider that there was not one in all that brilliant circle, that was not afraid to go home and think; but that the thoughts of each individual there, would be distressing when alone."" This reflection was experimentally just. The feeling of languor, which succeeds the animation of gaiety, is itself a very severe pain; and when the mind is then vacant, a thousand disappointments and vexations rush in and excruciate. Will not many even of my fairest readers allow this to be true?
(II, 173; Penguin, 631)",,19980,Are the rushing vexations personified?,"""The feeling of languor, which succeeds the animation of gaiety, is itself a very severe pain; and when the mind is then vacant, a thousand disappointments and vexations rush in and excruciate. Will not many even of my fairest readers allow this to be true?""","",2013-03-20 21:36:57 UTC,Aetat 68
7934,"",Reading,2014-06-19 16:26:12 UTC,"The man who desires to do, or who actually does, a praiseworthy action, may likewise desire the praise which is due to it, and sometimes, perhaps, more than is due to it. The two principles are in this case blended together. How far his conduct may have been influenced by the one, and how far by the other, may frequently be unknown even to himself. It must almost always be so to other people. They who are disposed to lessen the merit of his conduct, impute it chiefly or altogether to the mere love of praise, or to what they call mere vanity. They who are disposed to think more favourably of it, impute it chiefly or altogether to the love of praiseworthiness; to the love of what is really honourable and noble in human conduct; to the desire not merely of obtaining, but of deserving, the approbation and applause of his brethren. The imagination of the spectator throws upon it either the one colour or the other, according either to his habits of thinking, or to the favour or dislike which he may bear to the person whose conduct he is considering.
(pp. 126-7 in Liberty Fund ed.)",,23985,"","""The imagination of the spectator throws upon it either the one colour or the other, according either to his habits of thinking, or to the favour or dislike which he may bear to the person whose conduct he is considering.""","",2014-06-19 16:26:12 UTC,""
7934,"",REading,2014-06-19 16:49:23 UTC,"One individual must never prefer himself so much even to any other individual, as to hurt or injure that other, in order to benefit himself, though the benefit to the one should be much greater than the hurt or injury to the other. The poor man must neither defraud nor steal from the rich, though the acquisition might be much more beneficial to the one than the loss could be hurtful to the other. The man within immediately calls to him, in this case too, that he is no better than his neighbour, and that by this unjust preference he renders himself the proper object of the contempt and indignation of mankind; as well as of the punishment which that contempt and indignation must naturally dispose them to inflict, for having thus violated one of those sacred rules, upon the tolerable observation of which depend the whole security and peace of human society. There is no commonly honest man who does not more dread the inward disgrace of such an action, the indelible stain which it would for ever stamp upon his own mind, than the greatest external calamity which, without any fault of his own, could possibly befal him; and who does not inwardly feel the truth of that great stoical maxim, that for one man to deprive another unjustly of any thing, or unjustly to promote his own advantage by the loss or disadvantage of another, is more contrary to nature, than death, than poverty, than pain, than all the misfortunes which can affect him, either in his body, or in his external circumstances.
(text from from econlib.org, III.i.48; cf. p. 138 in Liberty Fund ed.)",,24005,"","""There is no commonly honest man who does not more dread the inward disgrace of such an action, the indelible stain which it would for ever stamp upon his own mind, than the greatest external calamity which, without any fault of his own, could possibly befal him; and who does not inwardly feel the truth of that great stoical maxim, that for one man to deprive another unjustly of any thing, or unjustly to promote his own advantage by the loss or disadvantage of another, is more contrary to nature, than death, than poverty, than pain, than all the misfortunes which can affect him, either in his body, or in his external circumstances.""",Impressions,2014-06-19 16:49:23 UTC,""
5767,"",Reading,2014-06-22 17:15:42 UTC,"I shall, therefore, consider only such studies as we are at liberty to pursue or to neglect; and of these I know not how you will make a better choice, than by studying the civil law, as your father advises, and the ancient languages, as you had determined for yourself; at least resolve, while you remain in any settled residence, to spend a certain number of hours every day amongst your books. The dissipation of thought, of which you complain, is nothing more than the vacillation of a mind suspended between different motives, and changing its direction as any motive gains or loses strength. If you can but kindle in your mind any strong desire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory.
(I, pp. 258-9)",,24116,"","""If you can but kindle in your mind any strong desire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory.""","",2014-06-22 17:15:42 UTC,"Letter from Samuel Johnson to James Boswell (London 8, December 1763)"
5767,"","Reading William C. Dowling, Language and Logos in Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1981), 50. See also Felicity Nussbaum, ""Boswell's Treatment of Johnson's Temper: 'A Warm West-Indian Climate,'"" Studies in English Literature (Summer 1974): 421-433, 432-3.
",2016-03-14 01:58:16 UTC,"He then rose again into passion, and attacked the young proselyte in the severest terms of reproach, so that both the ladies seemed to be much shocked.
We remained together till it was pretty late. Notwithstanding occasional explosions of violence, we were all delighted upon the whole with Johnson. I compared him at this time to a warm West-Indian climate, where you have a bright sun, quick vegetation, luxuriant foliage, luscious fruits; but where the same heat sometimes produces thunder, lightening, and earthquakes in a terrible degree.
(II, p. 232)",,24877,"","""I compared him at this time to a warm West-Indian climate, where you have a bright sun, quick vegetation, luxuriant foliage, luscious fruits; but where the same heat sometimes produces thunder, lightening, and earthquakes in a terrible degree.","",2016-03-14 02:21:28 UTC,""
5767,"",Reading,2016-03-15 14:59:37 UTC,"I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment. No. 32 on patience, even under extreme misery, is wonderfully lofty, and as much above the rant of stoicism, as the Sun of Revelation is brighter than the twilight of Pagan philosophy. I never read the following sentence without feeling my frame thrill: ""I think there is some reason for questioning whether the body and mind are not so proportioned, that the one can bear all which can be inflicted on the other; whether virtue cannot stand its ground as long as life, and whether a soul well principled will not be sooner separated than subdued.""
(I, p. 117; p. 120 in Penguin)",,24881,"","""I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment.""",Metal,2016-03-15 14:59:37 UTC,AETAT. 1750