work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3245,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""empire"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-08-22 00:00:00 UTC,"Sure there are charms by Heaven assign'd
To modish life alone;
A grace, an air, a taste refin'd,
To vulgar souls unknown.
Nature, my friend, profuse in vain,
May every gift impart;
If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain
An empire o'er the heart.",2010-06-09,8499,"","""Nature, my friend, profuse in vain, / May every gift impart; / If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain / An empire o'er the heart.""",Empire,2013-06-12 13:55:25 UTC,"Opening stanzas of Letter III (on ""The Birth of Fashion"")"
5305,"","Searching ""reason"" and ""empire"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-08-16 00:00:00 UTC,"In other scenes I now delight could find,
And, far from CYNTHIA, found my heart at reft;
Till love at length the dubious strife declined.
And reason fixed her empire in my breast.
",,14240,"•A C-H search pulls up this poem twice. It also appears in Pye's Poems (1787), where it is titled ""Elegy VI. Written in the Spring, 1766.""","""And reason fixed her empire in my breast.""","",2011-05-24 16:28:21 UTC,""
5395,"",Reading,2003-07-28 00:00:00 UTC,"SECOND LADY
Child! we must quit these visionary scenes,
And end our follies when we end our teens;
These bagatelles we must relinquish now,
And good matronic gentlewomen grow:
Fancy no more on airy wings shall rise,
We now must scold the maids, and make the pies;
Verse is a folly--we must get above it,
And yet I know not how it is--I love it.
(ll. 1-9, pp. 325)
",2009-07-31,14483,"•Verse must be gotten ""above,"" but not with ""airy wings""!","""Fancy no more on airy wings shall rise, / We now must scold the maids, and make the pies.""","",2009-09-14 19:41:00 UTC,I have not read the whole play. Lonsdale excerpts an exchange from the epilogue.
5500,"","Searching ""bosom"" and ""steel"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-06-13 00:00:00 UTC,"Full many a circling year had roll'd,
Since Eldred sought the martial field:
Lewellyn's sire, in battle bold;
Courage, the warrior's bosom steel'd.",,14718,"","""Courage, the warrior's bosom steel'd.""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:41:43 UTC,""
6493,"","Reading Roger Lonsdale's introduction to Eighteenth-Century Women Poets. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989), p. xxxv.",2009-02-28 00:00:00 UTC,"THE Author fears it will be hazarding a very bold remark, in the opinion of many ladies, when she adds, that the female mind, in general, does not appear capable of attaining so high a degree of perfection in science as the male. Yet she hopes to be forgiven when she observes also, that as it does not seem to derive the chief portion of its excellence from extraordinary abilities of this kind, it is not at all lessened by the imputation of not possessing them. It is readily allowed, that the sex have lively imaginations, and those exquisite perceptions of the beautiful and defective, which come under the denomination of Taste. But pretensions to that strength of intellect, which is requisite to penetrate into the abstruser walks of literature, it is presumed they will readily relinquish. There are green pastures, and pleasant vallies, where they may wander with safety to themselves, and delight to others. They may cultivate the roses of imagination, and the valuable fruits of morals and criticism; but the steeps of Parnassus few, comparatively, have attempted to scale with success. And when it is considered, that many languages, and many sciences, must contribute to the perfection of poetical composition, it will appear less strange. The lofty Epic, the pointed Satire, and the more daring and successful slights of the Tragic Muse, seem reserved for the bold adventurers of the other sex.
(pp. 5-7)",,17265,"","Women ""may cultivate the rose of imagination, and the valuable fruits of morals and criticism; but the steeps of Parnassus few comparatively, have attempted to scale with success.""","",2013-10-16 16:44:52 UTC,Introduction
6493,"",Reading in ECCO-TCP,2013-10-16 16:47:00 UTC,"In short, it appears that the mind in each sex has some natural kind of bias, which constitutes a distinction of character, and that the happiness of both depends, in a great measure, on the preservation and observance of this distinction. For where would be the superior pleasure and satisfaction resulting from mixed conversation, if this difference were abolished? If the qualities of both were invariably and exactly the same, no benefit or entertainment would arise from the tedious and insipid uniformity of such an intercourse; whereas considerable advantages are reaped from a select society of both sexes. The rough angles and asperities of male manners are imperceptibly filed, and gradually worn smooth, by the polishing of female conversation, and the refining of female taste; while the ideas of women acquire strength and solidity, by their associating with sensible, intelligent, and judicious men.
(pp. 13-14)",,23005,"","""In short, it appears that the mind in each sex has some natural kind of bias, which constitutes a distinction of character, and that the happiness of both depends, in a great measure, on the preservation and observance of this distinction.""","",2013-10-16 16:47:00 UTC,Introduction
7734,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-10-16 16:50:36 UTC,"It is a question frequently in the mouths of illiterate and dissipated females— ""What good is there in reading? To what end does it conduce?"" It is, however, too obvious to need insisting on, that unless perverted, as the best things may be, reading answers many excellent purposes beside the great leading one, and is perhaps the safest remedy for dissipation. She who dedicates a portion of her leisure to useful reading, feels her mind in a constant progressive state of improvement, whilst the mind of a dissipated woman is continually losing ground. An active spirit rejoiceth, like the sun, to run his daily course, while indolence, like the dial of Ahaz, goes backwards. The advantages which the understanding receives from polite literature, it is not here necessary to enumerate; its effects on the moral temper is the present object of consideration. The remark may perhaps be thought too strong, but I believe it is true, that next to religious influences, an habit of study is the most probable preservative of the virtue of young persons. Those who cultivate letters have rarely a strong passion for promiscuous visiting, or dissipated society; study therefore induces a relish for domestic life, the most desirable temper in the world for women. Study, as it rescues the mind from an inordinate fondness for gaming, dress, and public amusements, is an oeconomical propensity; for a lady may read at much less expence than she can play at cards; as it requires some application, it gives the mind an habit of industry; as it is a relief against that mental disease, which the French emphatically call ennui, it cannot fail of being beneficial to the temper and spirits, I mean in the moderate degree in which ladies are supposed to use it; as an enemy to indolence, it becomes a social virtue; as it demands the full exertion of our talents, it grows a rational duty; and when directed to the knowledge of the Supreme Being, and his laws, it rises into an act of religion.
(pp. 22-4)
",,23006,"","""Study, as it rescues the mind from an inordinate fondness for gaming, dress, and public amusements, is an oeconomical propensity; for a lady may read at much less expence than she can play at cards; as it requires some application, it gives the mind an habit of industry; as it is a relief against that mental disease, which the French emphatically call ennui, it cannot fail of being beneficial to the temper and spirits, I mean in the moderate degree in which ladies are supposed to use it; as an enemy to indolence, it becomes a social virtue; as it demands the full exertion of our talents, it grows a rational duty; and when directed to the knowledge of the Supreme Being, and his laws, it rises into an act of religion.""","",2013-10-16 16:50:36 UTC,On Dissipation
7734,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-10-16 16:51:53 UTC,"The philosophical doctrine of the slow recession of bodies from the sun, is a lively image of the reluctance with which we first abandon the light of virtue. The beginning of folly, and the first entrance on a dissipated life cost some pangs to a well disposed heart; but it is surprising to she how soon the progress ceases to be impeded by reflection, or slackened by remorse. For it is in moral as in natural things, the motion in minds as well as bodies is accelerated by a nearer approach to the centre to which they are tending. If we recede slowly at first setting out, we advance rapidly in our future course; and to have begun to be wrong, is already to have made a great progress.
(pp. 26-7)",,23007,"","""The philosophical doctrine of the slow recession of bodies from the sun, is a lively image of the reluctance with which we first abandon the light of virtue.""","",2013-10-16 16:51:53 UTC,On Dissipation
7734,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-10-16 16:52:54 UTC,"The philosophical doctrine of the slow recession of bodies from the sun, is a lively image of the reluctance with which we first abandon the light of virtue. The beginning of folly, and the first entrance on a dissipated life cost some pangs to a well disposed heart; but it is surprising to she how soon the progress ceases to be impeded by reflection, or slackened by remorse. For it is in moral as in natural things, the motion in minds as well as bodies is accelerated by a nearer approach to the centre to which they are tending. If we recede slowly at first setting out, we advance rapidly in our future course; and to have begun to be wrong, is already to have made a great progress.
(pp. 26-7)",,23008,"","""For it is in moral as in natural things, the motion in minds as well as bodies is accelerated by a nearer approach to the centre to which they are tending.""","",2013-10-16 16:53:09 UTC,On Dissipation
7735,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-10-16 16:55:21 UTC,"There is a quality infinitely more intoxicating to the female mind than knowledge--this is Wit, the most captivating, but the most dreaded of all talents: the most dangerous to those who have it, and the most feared by those who have it not. Though it is against all the rules, yet I cannot find in my heart to abuse this charming quality. He who is grown rich without it, in safe and sober dulness, shuns it as a disease, and looks upon poverty as its invariable concomitant. The moralist declaims against it as the source of irregularity, and the frugal citizen dreads it more than bankruptcy itself, for he considers it as the parent of extravagance and beggary. The Cynic will ask of what use it is? Of very little perhaps: no more is a flower garden, and yet it is allowed as an object of innocent amusement and delightful recreation. A woman, who possesses this quality, has received a most dangerous present, perhaps not less so than beauty itself: especially it it be not sheathed in a temper peculiarly inoffensive, chastised by a most correct judgment, and restrained by more prudence than falls to the common lot.
(pp. 43-5)",,23009,"","""A woman, who possesses this quality, has received a most dangerous present, perhaps not less so than beauty itself: especially it it be not sheathed in a temper peculiarly inoffensive, chastised by a most correct judgment, and restrained by more prudence than falls to the common lot.""","",2013-10-16 16:55:21 UTC,Thoughts on Conversation