text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"The Poets Soliloquy
Why do I droop, like flowers opprest with rain?
What cloud of sorrow doth my colour stain?
I like a Sparrow on the house alone
Do sit, and like a Dove I mourn and groan:
Doth discontent, or sad affliction bind,
And stop the freedom of my Nobler mind?
No, no, I know the cause; I do retire,
To quench old flames, and kindle better fire:
It is my comfort to escape the rude
And sluttish trouble of the multitude:
Flowers, rivers, woods, the pleasant air and wind,
With Sacred thoughts, do feed my serious mind:
My active soul doth not consume with rust,
I have been rub'd, and now are free from dust.
Let moderation rule my pensive way;
Students may leave their books, and sometimes play",2011-05-23 17:15:34 UTC,"""Flowers, rivers, woods, the pleasant air and wind, / With Sacred thoughts, do feed my serious mind.""",2004-03-11 00:00:00 UTC,I've included the whole poem,Soliloquy,2011-05-23,"",•Published in Flamma Sine Fumo (1662),HDIS (Poetry),9408,3621
"Sir, since I had the happinesse to read
The Siege of Urbin; I heare, others plead
That All may see't, and plead with such successe;
That now you'l wave the Stage, and grace the Presse.
'Twill much oblige the Nation, for they'l finde
Your Play stampt with the Figure of your Minde;
The Poëm's Noble, nothing Vulgar in't;
You coyne not Bullion at the Common Mint,
As wee doe, whose low soules no Art can raise:
Nay ev'n when Lov's infus'd into our Playes,
Slow as a Drug, that in the body lies,
Our Phansy works; yours, like a Spirit, flyes,
Nor does your excellence alone consist
In Love's soft Parleys: you do Souldiers list,
And carry on designes of Warre and State,
Form'd in a Campe and Court which you create.
And though new Poëts, like new Starres, appeare:
Yet still you rise above their highest Sphere.
'Tis true, they write great Characters; but then,
How often speak their Great like meaner men;
You make a Prince do all things like a Prince,
That's Argument sufficient to evince
The Dictates that from deepest Reason flow,
Which learned Poets dreame but of, you know,
If then, He, that has greatest latitude
Of Knowledge merit most; I may conclude
The Laurell's yours, justly transplanted now,
From off the Schollar's, to the Courtier's brow.",2009-09-14 19:34:13 UTC,"""Slow as a Drug, that in the body lies, / Our Phansy works; yours, like a Spirit, flyes""",2005-04-11 00:00:00 UTC,Front Matter,"",,"",•INTEREST continues with figure of coining and mint.,"Searching ""mind"" and ""stamp"" in HDIS (Drama)",9433,3634
"TRUR.
Into his studious Closet to stuff his Lunatick head, since he can get nothing for his belly.",2013-06-10 18:17:00 UTC,"""Into his studious Closet to stuff his Lunatick head, since he can get nothing for his belly.""",2005-09-07 00:00:00 UTC,Act I,"",2009-01-20,"","",Searching in HDIS (Drama),9615,3721
"""Then Justice wake, and Rigour take her time,
For lo! our mercy is become our crime.
While halting punishment her stroke delays,
Our sovereign right, heaven's sacred trust, decays;
For whose support even subjects' interest calls,
Woe to that kingdom where the monarch falls!
That prince, who yields the least of regal sway,
So far his people's freedom does betray.
Right lives by law, and law subsists by power;
Disarm the shepherd, wolves the flock devour.
Hard lot of empire o'er a stubborn race,
Which heaven itself in vain has tried with grace!
When will our reason's long-charmed eyes unclose,
And Israel judge between her friends and foes?
When shall we see expired deceivers' sway,
And credit what our God and monarchs say?
Dissembled patriots, bribed with Egypt's gold,
Even sanhedrims in blind obedience hold;
Those patriots' falsehood in their actions see,
And judge by the pernicious fruit the tree;
If aught for which so loudly they declaim,
Religion, laws, and freedom, were their aim,
Our senates in due methods they had led,
To avoid those mischiefs which they seem'd to dread;
But first, e'er yet they propped the sinking state,
To impeach and charge, as urged by private hate,
Proves that they ne'er believed the fears they prest,
But barbarously destroyed the nation's rest.
O whither will ungoverned senates drive?
And to what bounds licentious votes arrive?
When their injustice we are pressed to share,
The monarch urged to exclude the lawful heir.
Are princes thus distinguished from the crowd,
And this the privilege of royal blood?
But grant we should confirm the wrongs they press,
His sufferings yet were than the people's less;
Condemned for life the murdering sword to wield,
And on their heirs entail a bloody field.
Thus madly their own freedom they betray,
And for the oppression which they fear make way;
Succession fixed by heaven, the kingdom's bar,
Which, once dissolved, admits the flood of war;
Waste, rapine, spoil, without the assault begin,
And our mad tribes supplant the fence within.
Since, then, their good they will not understand,
'Tis time to take the monarch's power in hand;
Authority and force to join with skill,
And save the lunatics against their will.
The same rough means that 'suage the crowd, appease
Our senates, raging with the crowd's disease.
Henceforth unbiassed measures let them draw
From no false gloss, but genuine text of law;
Nor urge those crimes upon religion's score,
Themselves so much in Jebusites abhor;
Whom laws convict, and only they, shall bleed,
Nor Pharisees by Pharisees be freed.
Impartial justice from our throne shall shower,
All shall have right, and we our sovereign power.""",2009-09-14 19:34:23 UTC,"""When will our reason's long-charmed eyes unclose, / And Israel judge between her friends and foes?""",2004-09-01 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,Eye,"",HDIS,9668,3745
"15. And therefore our wills also must be humble, and apt, and desirous to learn, and willing to obey. Obedite & intelligetis; by humility and obedience we shall be best instructed. Not that by this means the conscience shall receive direct aids, but because by this means it will be left in its own aptnesses and dispositions, and when it is not hindred, the word of God will enter and dwell upon the conscience. And in this sense it is that some say that [Conscience is the inclination and propension of the will corresponding to practical knowledge] Will and Conscience are like the cognati
sensus, the Touch and the Taste; or the Teeth and the Ears, affected and assisted by some common objects, whose effect is united in matter and some real events, and distinguished by their formalities, or metaphysical beings.
(p. 5)",2010-01-12 19:06:02 UTC,"""Will and Conscience are like the cognati sensus, the Touch and the Taste; or the Teeth and the Ears, affected and assisted by some common objects, whose effect is united in matter and some real events, and distinguished by their formalities, or metaphysical beings.""",2010-01-12 19:05:22 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I","",,"","",Reading,17666,3617
"9. (1.) There is to every state and to every part of Man given a proportionable light to guide him in that way where he ought, and is appointed to walk. In the darknesses of this World, and in the actions of common life, the Sun and
Moon in their proper seasons are to give us light: In the actions of human entercourse, and the notions tending to it, reason is our eye, and to it are notices proportion'd, drawn from nature and experience, even from all the principles with which our rational faculties usually do converse. But because a man is design'd to the knowledge of God, and of things spiritual, there must spring a new light from Heaven, and he must have new capacities, and new illuminations; that is, new eyes, and a new light: For here the eye of reason is too weak, and the natural man is not capable of the things of the Spirit, because they are spiritually discerned. Faith is the eye, and the Holy Spirit gives the light, and the word of God is the lanthorn, and the spiritual not the rational man can perceive the things of God. Secreta Dei, Deo meo,
& filiis domus ejus. God and Gods secret ones only know Gods secrets.
(p. 32-3)",2010-01-12 20:01:00 UTC,"""In the actions of human entercourse, and the notions tending to it, reason is our eye, and to it are notices proportion'd, drawn from nature and experience, even from all the principles with which our rational faculties usually do converse.""",2010-01-12 19:59:30 UTC,"Book I, Chapter 2","",,"","","Reading Peter Goodrich's ""The New Casuistry."" Critical Inquiry 33, no. 4 (Summer 2007): 684. <Link to Critical Inquiry>",17669,3617
"1. In the next place we may rank Meekness as a necessary feminine Vertu; this even nature seems to teach, which abhors monstrosities and disproportions, and therefore having allotted to women a more smooth and soft composition of body, infers thereby her intention, that the mind should correspond with it. For tho the adulterations of art, can represent in the same Face beauty in one position, and deformity in another, yet nature is more sincere, and never meant a serene and clear forhead, should be the frontispiece to a cloudy tempestuous heart. 'Tis therefore to be wisht they would take the admonition, and whilst they consult their glasses, whether to applaud or improve their outward form, they would cast one look inwards, and examine what symmetry is there held with a fair outside; whether any storm of passion darken and overcast their interior beauty, and use at least an equal dilligence to rescu that; as they would to clear their face from any stain or blemish.
(I.ii.1)",2010-03-30 21:53:44 UTC,""" For tho the adulterations of art, can represent in the same Face beauty in one position, and deformity in another, yet nature is more sincere, and never meant a serene and clear forhead, should be the frontispiece to a cloudy tempestuous heart.""",2010-03-30 21:53:44 UTC,Part I. SECT. II. Of Meekness,"",,"","",Reading,17752,6689
"We have been Discoursing all this while, how far a Wicked Man may be Oblig'd, and the Stoicks tell us, at last, that he cannot be Oblig'd at all: For, they make him incapable of any Good, and consequently of any Benefit. But, he has this advantage, that if he cannot be Oblig'd, he cannot be Ungrateful: For, if he cannot receive, he is not bound to return. On the other side, a Good Man, and an Ungrateful, are a Contradiction: So that at this rate there's no such thing as Ingratitude in Nature. They compare a Wicked Man's Mind to a Vitiated Stomach; he corrupts whatever he receives, and the best Nourishment turns to the Disease. But, taking this for granted, a Wicked Man may yet be so far Oblig'd, as to pass for Ungrateful, if he does not Requite what be Receives. For, though it be not a perfect Benefit, yet he receives something like it. There are Goods of the Mind, the Body, and of Fortune. Of the first sort, Fools, and Wicked Men, are wholly incapable; to the rest they may be admitted. But why should I call any Man Ungrateful, you'll say, for not Restoring That which I deny to be a Benefit? I answer, That if the Receiver take it for a Benefit, and fails of a Return, 'tis Ingratitude in him; for, that which goes for an Obligation among Wicked Men, is an Obligation upon them: and, they may pay one another in their own Coin; the Mony is Current, whether it be Gold, or Leather, when it comes once to be Authoriz'd. Nay, Cleanthes carries it farther; He that is wanting, says he, to a kind Office, though it be no Benefit, would have done the fame thing if it had been one; and is as guilty, as a Thief is, that has set his Booty; and is already Arm'd, and Mounted, with a purpose to seize it, though he has not yet drawn Blood. Wickedness is form'd in the Heart; and, the matter of Fact is only the Discovery, and the Execution of it. Now, tho' a wicked Man cannot either Receive, or Bestow a Benefit, because he wants the Will of doing Good, and for that he is no longer Wicked, when Virtue has taken Possession of him; yet we commonly call it one, as we call a Man illiterate that is not Learned, and Naked, that is not well Clad; not but that the one can Read, and the other is Cover'd.
(pp. 59-60)",2011-09-20 16:04:02 UTC,"""They compare a Wicked Man's Mind to a Vitiated Stomach; he corrupts whatever he receives, and the best Nourishment turns to the Disease. But, taking this for granted, a Wicked Man may yet be so far Oblig'd, as to pass for Ungrateful, if he does not Requite what be Receives.""",2011-09-20 16:04:02 UTC,"Of Benefits, Chapter XIV","",,"","","Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",19188,7097
"[...] Plotting and writing in this kind, are certainly more troublesome employments than many which signify more, and are of greater moment in the world: The fancy, memory, and judgment are then extended (like so many limbs) upon the rack; all of them reaching with their utmost stress at nature; a thing so almost infinite and boundless, as can never fully be comprehended, but where the images of all things are always present. Yet I wonder not, your Lordship succeeds so well in this attempt: the knowledge of men is your daily practice in the world; to work and bend their stubborn minds, which go not all after the same grain, but each of them so particular a way, that the same common humours, in several persons, must be wrought upon by several means. Thus, my Lord, your sickness is but the imitation of your health; the poet but subordinate to the statesman in you: you still govern men with the same address, and manage business with the same prudence; allowing it here, as in the world, the due increase and growth, till it comes to the just height; and then turning it when it is fully ripe, and Nature calls out, as it were, to be delivered. With this only advantage of ease to you in your poetry, that you have fortune here at your command; with which, wisdom does often unsuccessfully struggle in the world. Here is no chance which you have not foreseen; all your heroes are more than your subjects, they are your creatures; and though they seem to move freely in all the sallies of their passions, yet you make destinies for them which they cannot shun. They are moved, if I may dare to say so, like the rational creatures of the Almighty Poet, who walk at liberty, in their own opinion, because their fetters are invincible, when indeed the prison of their will is the more sure for being large; and instead of an absolute power over their actions, they have only a wretched desire of doing that, which they cannot choose but do.",2012-01-28 20:23:11 UTC,"""The fancy, memory, and judgment are then extended (like so many limbs) upon the rack; all of them reaching with their utmost stress at nature; a thing so almost infinite and boundless, as can never fully be comprehended, but where the images of all things are always present.""",2012-01-28 20:23:11 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,19545,3626
"WHat Greece, when Learning flourish'd, onely Knew,
(Athenian Judges,) you this day Renew.
Here too are Annual Rites to Pallas done,
And here Poetique prizes lost or won.
Methinks I see you, Crown'd with Olives sit,
And strike a sacred Horrour from the Pit.
A Day of Doom is this of your Decree,
Where even the Best are but by Mercy free:
A Day which none but Iohnson durst have wish'd to see.
Here they who long have known the usefull Stage,
Come to be taught themselves to teach the Age.
As your Commissioners our Poets goe,
To Cultivate the Virtue which you sow:
In your Lycaeum, first themselves refind,
And Delegated thence to Humane kind.
But as Embassadours, when long from home,
For new Instructions to their Princes come;
So Poets who your Precepts have forgot,
Return, and beg they may be better taught:
Follies and Faults elsewhere by them are shown,
But by your Manners they Correct their Own.
Th' illiterate Writer, Emperique like, applies
To minds diseas'd, unsafe, chance Remedies:
The Learn'd in Schools, where Knowledge first began,
Studies with Care th' Anatomy of Man;
Sees Vertue, Vice, and Passions in their Cause,
And Fame from Science, not from Fortune draws.
So Poetry, which is in Oxford made
An Art, in London onely is a Trade.
There Haughty Dunces whose unlearned Pen
Could ne'er Spell Grammar, would be reading Men.
Such build their Poems the Lucretian way,
So many Huddled Atoms make a Play,
And if they hit in Order by some Chance,
They call that Nature, which is Ignorance.
To such a Fame let mere Town-Wits aspire,
And their Gay Nonsense their own Citts admire.
Our Poet, could he find Forgiveness here
Would wish it rather than a Plaudit there.
He owns no Crown from those Praetorian bands,
But knows that Right is in this Senates hands.
Not Impudent enough to hope your Praise,
Low at the Muses feet, his Wreath he lays,
And where he took it up Resigns his Bays.
Kings make their Poets whom themselves think fit,
But 'tis your Suffrage makes Authentique Wit.
(pp. 263-5)",2016-01-13 17:39:52 UTC,"""Th' illiterate Writer, Emperique like, applies / To minds diseas'd, unsafe, chance Remedies.""",2016-01-13 17:39:52 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,24796,8122