text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"When we were alone, I introduced the subject of death, and endeavoured to maintain that the fear of it might be got over. I told him that David Hume said to me, he was no more uneasy to think he should not be after his life, than that he he had not been before he began to exist. JOHNSON. ""Sir, if he really thinks so, his perceptions are disturbed; he is mad; if he does think so, he lies. He may tell you, he holds his finger in the flame of a candle, without feeling pain; would you believe him? When he dies, he at least gives up all he has."" BOSWELL. Foote, Sir, told me, that when he was very ill he was not afraid to die."" JOHNSON. ""It is not true, Sir. Hold a pistol to Foote's breast, or to Hume's breast, and threaten to kill them and you'll see how they behave."" BOSWELL. ""But may we not fortify our minds for the approach of death?""--Here I am sensible I was in the wrong, to bring before his view what he ever looked upon with horrour; for although when in a celestial frame of mind in his ""Vanity of Human Wishes,"" he has supposed death to be ""kind Nature's signal for retreat,"" from this state of being to ""a happier seat,"" his thoughts upon this awful were in general full of dismal apprehensions. His mind resembled the vast ampitheatre, the Colisaeum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgment, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives then back to their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him. To my question, whether we might not fortify our minds for the approach of death, he answered in a passion, ""No, Sir, let it alone. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."" He added, (with an earnest look,) ""A man knows it must be so, and submits. It will do him no good to whine.""
(p. 379-80; cf. I, p. 329 in 1791 printing)",2018-04-16 20:44:57 UTC,"""His mind resembled the vast ampitheatre, the Colisaeum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgment, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives then back to their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him.""",2005-09-19 00:00:00 UTC,"A.D. 1769, Aetat. 60","",,Theater,"•I've included four times: Ampitheatre, Coliseum, Gladiator, Beasts","Reading; confirmed in ECCO-TCP. Found again reading Jack Lynch, ""Samuel Johnson, Unbeliever."" Eighteenth-Century Life 29:3 (September, 2005): 1-19, 16. https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-29-3-1",15364,5767
"In wisdom Providence preserves the whole--
Thro' Matter's medium goads the sentient Soul--
On every Sense impresses hopes and fears,
Thence, firm, o'er Mind, fix'd resolutions rears--
Imprints emotions both from pain and bliss,
By irritating stroke, and kindling kiss--
Still furthering useful ends thro' wants, and woes,
Sickly conceptions, and obstetric throes.
Inflicts fresh pains to spur the weapon'd Will--
Guards greater good by levying lesser ill--
Like a kind Parent, with true tenderness,
For crimes, committed, oft afflicts, to bless!
Not suffering Souls in fleshly cells to lie,
Like the stall'd ox, or glutton of the stye;
But shows that labour with reflection join'd,
Yields Body health, with happiness of Mind!",2009-09-14 19:46:27 UTC,"""Not suffering Souls in fleshly cells to lie, / Like the stall'd ox, or glutton of the stye;""",2005-08-17 00:00:00 UTC,"",Dualism,,Rooms,"•I've included thrice: Cell, Ox, and Pig","Searching ""soul"" and ""cell"" in HDIS (Poetry)",16303,6163
"Compare Thy works with Heav'n's unerring Word,
And note if nought be sinful, frail, absurd--
Whether its precepts, pure, in every part,
Have mov'd Thy Mind--have influenc'd Thy Heart.
From Reason's dawning, to the recent day,
Did ne'er conception, word, or action, stray?
But every pow'r, and faculty, of Soul,
In every waking moment keep the Whole?
Hast Thou, thro' all that long-protracted length,
Lov'd God with all Thy Heart--Mind--Soul--and Strength?
Hast Thou so manag'd Pow'r, dispos'd of Pelf,
As proves Thou lov'st Thy Neighbour as Thyself?
Ah! Thy proud Buildings publicly declare
What Thy Religion, Love, and Motives, are.
Thy Lawns, Thy Gardens, and Thy Groves, confess,
Thy splendid Furniture--Thy pompous Dress--
Thy crowded Table, and Thy Costly Treat--
Thy brilliant Side-board--and Thy lordly Suite--
Thy public Feastings, and proud Equipage--
All prove what graceless hopes Thy heart engage!
What sensual objects all Thy Soul absorb,
And bind Thy Spirit to this earthly Orb!
Each Passion stir, and stimulate each Lust,
To grasp at emptiness and grapple dust!
Urge on Thy Might, and agitate Thy Mind,
To pounce at shadows, and pursue the wind!
Inflame Affections--whip and spur Thy Will,
For things that ne'er can satisfy, or fill!
Which fetter judgment--rivet Reason's pow'rs,
To what Time terminates, or Death devours!
What Understanding's purest light pervert,
To grope in darkness--grovel in the dirt!
Draw down Ambition from substantial views,
To hunt for empty forms, and fading hues!
Solicit Fancy from celestial flights,
To wander o'er the World for frail delights
And crowd Imagination's rooms, immense,
With what relates alone to Time and Sense!
Faith, still deluded with lov'd Nature's Lies,
And Hope, still eying Earth's deceptive Toys;
Where Charity some cheating trifle spends,
While Folly frustrates Ostentation's ends!",2013-06-04 15:23:45 UTC,"""Solicit Fancy from celestial flights, / To wander o'er the World for frail delights / And crowd Imagination's rooms, immense, / With what relates alone to Time and Sense!""",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"",Flights of Fancy,2013-06-04,Rooms,"•I've included thrice: Crowd, Rooms, Birds
• Reviewed 2009-07-31","Searching ""imagination"" and ""room"" in HDIS (Poetry)",16311,6163
"Philosophy, in all its Pride,
Cannot defend the Suicide,
By any Law, by any rule
In Reason's or Religion's school:
Life's the peculiar gift of Heav'n,
And He alone by whom 'tis given,
Can have alone the power to give
The stroke by which we cease to live.
Is Man to say--I've reach'd the goal,
I'll now dismiss th'imprison'd soul;
With my own hand I'll ope the way
From its base tenement of clay;
Tir'd of its suff'rings here below,
I'll loose it from this scene of woe;
I'll prune its wings and let it fly,
To seek again its native sky:
Yes, I will quench my mortal breath,
I'll be the judge of Life and Death.--
But should, in its immortal sphere,
Say, should th'unsummon'd soul appear
What, what may be the sentence there!
Stay then thy hand, e'er 'tis too late,
Nor madly rush upon thy Fate!
Thou shudd'rest at the horrid mood,
When Murder drinks a brother's blood;
And dare you hope for Virtue's crown,
When your arm'd hand draws forth your own!",2009-12-02 19:39:19 UTC,"""With my own hand I'll ope the way / From its base tenement of clay; / Tir'd of its suff'rings here below, / I'll loose it from this scene of woe; / I'll prune its wings and let it fly, / To seek again its native sky.""",2004-06-15 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2009-12-02,"","",Searching HDIS (Poetry),16337,6168
"There came an eastern voice of solemn mood:--
Yet wast thou patient. Then sang forth the Nine,
Apollo's garland:--yet didst thou divine
Such home-bred glory, that they cry'd in vain,
""Come hither, Sister of the Island!"" Plain
Spake fair Ausonia; and once more she spake
A higher summons:--still didst thou betake
Thee to thy native hopes. O thou hast won
A full accomplishment! The thing is done,
Which undone, these our latter days had risen
On barren souls. Great Muse, thou know'st what prison,
Of flesh and bone, curbs, and confines, and frets
Our spirit's wings: despondency besets
Our pillows; and the fresh to-morrow morn
Seems to give forth its light in very scorn
Of our dull, uninspired, snail-paced lives.
",2009-12-02 19:40:43 UTC,"""Great Muse, thou know'st what prison, / Of flesh and bone, curbs, and confines, and frets / Our spirit's wings.""",2003-09-26 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2009-12-02,"","",HDIS (Poetry),16443,6207
"Man is a godlike being. We launch ourselves in conceit into illimitable space, and take up our rest beyond the fixed stars. We proceed without impediment from country to country, and from century to century, through all the ages of the past, and through the vast creation of the imaginable future. We spurn at the bounds of time and space; nor would the thought be less futile that imagines to imprison the mind within the limits of the body, than the attempt of the booby clown who is said within a thick hedge to have plotted to shut in the flight of an eagle.
(p. 9)",2013-06-04 15:19:02 UTC,"""We spurn at the bounds of time and space; nor would the thought be less futile that imagines to imprison the mind within the limits of the body, than the attempt of the booby clown who is said within a thick hedge to have plotted to shut in the flight of an eagle""",2005-08-11 00:00:00 UTC,Essay I. Of Body and Mind. The Prologue.,"",2013-06-04,Animals and Rooms,"•I've included twice: Prison and Eagle
•I've deleted the duplicate entry (#16580). — 2013-06-04","Searching ""mind"" at Electronic Text Center at UVA Library",16579,6270
"In birth the public sees no kind of merit!
Think of the present equalizing spirit!
Amidst the populace how rank it springs!
Nay, from the palaces the Virtues fly,
While boldly entering from their beastly stye,
The vulgar passions rush to pig with kings!
(p. 12)",2012-07-03 16:40:35 UTC,"""Nay, from the palaces the Virtues fly, / While boldly entering from their beastly stye, / The vulgar passions rush to pig with kings!",2012-07-03 16:40:09 UTC,"","",,Beasts,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),19845,7287