work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
6002,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""impression"" in HDIS (Poetry); found again ""fancy""",2005-05-17 00:00:00 UTC,"I mark thy muse; her gothic lyre
Well suits the legendary lay;
While darting from her eyes of sire
She beams a visionary day:
Bright as the magic torch she early gave
To light thy ven'trous way, through fancy's secret cave.",2011-06-05,15958,"","The muse ""beams a visionary day: / Bright as the magic torch she early gave / To light thy ven'trous way, through fancy's secret cave.""",Impressions,2011-06-06 03:31:47 UTC,""
6113,Lockean Philosophy,"Searching ""imagination"" and ""impression"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-20 00:00:00 UTC,"1. Perhaps the generality of people have not sufficiently attended to the operation of their minds, respecting the personal idea they retain of the long absent, or the dead, so as clearly to comprehend the eight ensuing lines.
No picture, be it ever so well painted, can vie with the memory in that exactness, with which she presents, early in absence, the image of that form and face, whose lineaments are dear to us. Therefore, actual pictures of beloved friends would not be so eagerly coveted, but that we render this darling, internal image indistinct, by recalling it too frequently; as that strength of line, which gives sharpness and spirit to a copper-plate, becomes injured after a certain number of impressions have been taken off. By repeated use, the plate, if not retouched, will produce only a dim and shadowy mass, in which the features and countenance cannot be very distinctly discerned.
So it is with the memory, after continual recurrence, and pressure of the affections upon the image she presents, which, for a considerable period, she had presented with that perfect precision, to which no powers of the pencil can attain;--but, in time, the image becomes indistinct, not from any decay in the powers of memory; not from the affections growing cold, but merely from intense and incessant recurrence. Yes, it is beneath the constant glow of ardent imagination, that the impression, given by memory, has faded. Then it is that a good, nay even an indifferent picture, or a paper-profile of a dear lost friend, strengthens our recollection, in the same manner that retouching a copper-plate restores its power of giving animated impressions.
The author wishes that all who peruse these remarks, and have dispositions sufficiently affectionate to contemplate fervently, and often, in their own minds the image of one, fondly beloved, whom they have, for a length of years, or for ever lost, would recollect if, after a time, they were able to recall that image with equal precision, as they could remember the features, and air, of other deceased, or absent persons, with whom they had been well acquainted, but of whom, being less interesting to their affections, they had only casually thought. The superior distinctness with which the less beloved image comes back to the mind, upon its summons, proves the philosophic truth of these remarks, and is the cause why we so fondly desire the penciled remembrance of those we love, to refresh that ideal image which intense and perpetual contemplation had rendered evanescent. Locke says--""The pictures drawn in our minds of our absent friends, are laid in fading colours, which, if not sometimes refreshed, will vanish and disappear."" It might have been expected that a philosopher so accurate and discriminating, would have pursued the observation, and reminded us, that there are two causes, exactly opposite to each other, which produce this vanishing; viz. the mind not having dwelt upon the originals of those its pictures often enough to make their image strong and vivid after long absence; --and, its too frequently casting upon such inshrined resemblances, the dazzling light of fervent meditation. It is not meant that fervent meditation will produce forgetfulness of the general idea of the persons of those we fondly regret, but that it will, in time, make us unable to recall them with that precision we desire, without the help of the pencil.
2. The celebrated painter.",,16154,"•INTEREST. USE in entry on Engraving
•Note attached to the following lines: ""But when the form, there shrin'd, too oft survey'd,[1] / Beneath the ardent beam of Thought shall fade""","""Yes, it is beneath the constant glow of ardent imagination, that the impression, given by memory, has faded. Then it is that a good, nay even an indifferent picture, or a paper-profile of a dear lost friend, strengthens our recollection, in the same manner that retouching a copper-plate restores its power of giving animated impressions.""",Impression,2009-09-14 19:45:53 UTC,""
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 17:19:39 UTC,"Whereas these Imaginations that we have of Individual Corporeal things when we are awake, and our Outward Senses employed upon their several Objects, do not seem to be Sensations of things Really existing and Present, as our Dreams do, but to be certain faint, evanid, shadowy and umbratile things, in comparison of those Sensations which we have at the same time with them when we are awake, that is, not as things existent without us, but as our own Cogitations. The Reason whereof is, because though they be both of the same kind, yet those Motions of the Spirits which are caused by the Nerves, from the Objects without when we are awake, being more vigorous, durable, constant and prevalent, do naturally obscure or extinguish those other weaker Phantasms or Imaginations which we have at the same time: And Reason interposing, brings in its Verdict for those Stronger Phantasms also whose Objects are durable and permanent, by means whereof the latter only seem to be Real Sensations, the former counterfeit and Fictitious Imaginations; or meer Picture and Landskip in the Soul. And this Aristotle long ago observed in this manner. In the day they are shut out and disappear, the Senses and Understanding working, as the lesser Fire is made to disappear by the Greater; and small Griefs and Pleasures by Great ones. But when we are at rest in our Beds, the least Phantasms make Impressions upon us. In the day-time, and when we are awake, those more fleeting Fancies and Imaginations, which proceed not from the Motions of the Nerves, caused by the Objects without, must needs yield and give place, as being baffled and confuted by those stronger, more durable and lasting Motions that come from the Nerves, caused by permanent Objects, Reason also carrying it clearly for the latter, by means whereof the former cannot appear as Real Things or Sensations. But when we are asleep, the same Phantasms and Imaginations are more strong, vivid and lively; because the Nerves are relaxated, there are often no Motions transmitted by them from the outward Objects into the Brain, to confound those Motions of the Spirits within, and distract the Soul's Attention to them; Just as the same Loudness of a Voice in a still Evening will be heard a great deal further and clearer, than in the Day-time when the Air is agitated with many contrary Motions crossing and confounding one another. But now there are no other Motions of the Spirits, besides these which cause Dreams to compare with them; and disgrace them, or put them out of Countenance; and as it were, by their louder Noise and Clamours, so to possess the Animadversive part of the Soul, that the weaker Murmurs of the other cannot obtain to be heard, as it is when we are awake, or in the Day-time. And therefore in Sleep the Mind Naturally admits these Phantasms as Sensations, there appearing none other to contradict that Verdict.
(III.iv.4, pp. 115-117)",,19476,"","""In the day they [Phantasms] are shut out and disappear, the Senses and Understanding working, as the lesser Fire is made to disappear by the Greater; and small Griefs and Pleasures by Great ones. But when we are at rest in our Beds, the least Phantasms make Impressions upon us.""","",2012-01-22 17:20:38 UTC,"Book III, Chapter iv"
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 20:30:22 UTC,"13. Hitherto, by the Instance of am Individual and Material Triangle, we have shewed, how the Soul, in Understanding Corporeal Things, doth not meerly suffer from without from the Body, but Actively Exert Intelligible Ideas of its own, and from within it self. Now I observe that it is so far from being true, that all our Objective Cogitations or Ideas are Corporeal Effluxes or Radiations from Corporeal Things without, or impressed upon the Soul from them in a gross Corporeal Manner, as a Signature or Stamp is imprinted by a Seal upon a piece of Wax or Clay; that (as I have before hinted) this is not true sometimes of the Sensible Ideas themselves. For all Perception whatsoever is a Vital Energy, and not a Meer Dead Passion; and as the Atomical Philosophy instructs us, there is nothing Communicated in Sensation from the Material Objects without, but only Certain, Local Motions, that are propagated from them by the Nerves into the Brain; which Motions cannot propagate themselves Corporeally upon the Soul also, because it penetrates and runs through all the Parts of its own Body. But the Soul, by reason of that Vital and Magical Union which is between it and the Body, sympathizing with the several Motions of it in the Brain, doth thereupon exert Sensible Ideas or Phantasms within it self, whereby it perceives or takes Notice of Objects Distant from the Brain, either within or without the Body. Many of which Sentiments and Phantasms have no Similitude at all, either with those Local Motions made in the Brain, or with the Objects without; such as are the Sentiments of Pain, Pleasure, and Titillation, Hunger, Thirst, Heat and Cold, Sweet and Bitter, Light and Colours, &c. Wherefore the Truth is, that Sense, if we well consider it, is but a kind of Speech, (if I may so call it) Nature as it were talking to us in the Sensible-Objects Without, by certain Motions as Signs from thence Communicated to the Brain. For, as in Speech, when Men talk to one another, they do but make Certain Motions upon the Air, which cannot Impress their Thoughts upon one another in a Passive manner; but it being first consented to and agreed upon, that such certain Sounds shall signify such Ideas and Cogitations, he that hears those Sounds in Discourse, doth not fix his Thoughts upon the Sounds themselves, but presently Exerts from within himself such Ideas and Cogitations as those Sounds by Consent signify, though there be no Similitude at all betwixt those Sounds and Thoughts. Just in the same manner Nature doth as it were talk to us in the Outward Objects of Sense, and import Various Sentiments, Ideas, Phantasms, and Cogitations, not by stamping or impressing them passively upon the Soul from without, but only by certain Local Motions from them, as it were dumb Signs made in the Brain; It having been first Constituted and Appointed by Nature's Law, that such Local Motions shall signify such Sensible Ideas and Phantasms, though there be no Similitude at all betwixt them; for what Similitude can there be betwixt any Local Motions and the Senses of Pain or Hunger, and the like, as there is no Similitude betwixt many Words and Sounds, and the Thoughts which they signify. But the Soul, as by a certain secret Instinct, and as it were by Compact, understanding Nature's Language, as soon as these Local Motions are made in the Brain, doth not fix its Attention immediately upon those Motions themselves, as we do not use to do in Discourse upon meer Sounds, but presently exerts such Sensible Ideas, Phantasms and Cogitations, as Nature hath made them to be Signs of, whereby it perceives and takes Cognizance of many other Things both in its own Body, and without it, at a Distance from it, In order to the Good and Conservation of it. Wherefore there are two kinds of Perceptive Powers in the Soul, one below another; The first is that which belongs to the Inferiour Part of the Soul, whereby it sympathizes with the Body, which is determined by the several Motions and Pressures that are made upon that from Corporeal Things without to several Sensitive and Phantastical Energies, whereby it hath a Slight and Superficial Perception of Individual Corporeal Things, and as it were of the Outsides of them, but doth not reach to the Comprehension of the Essence or Indivisible and Immutable Notion of any thing. The Second Perceptive Power is that of the Soul it self, or that Superiour, Interiour Noetical Part of it which is free from Passion or Sympathy, free and disentangled from all that Magical Sympathy with the Body. Which acting alone by it self, Exerts from within the Intelligible Ideas of Things, Virtually Contained in its own Cognoscitive Power, that are Universal and Abstract Notions, from which, as it were looking downward it comprehends Individual Things. Now because these latter, which are pure Active Energies of the Soul, are many times exerted upon occasion of those other Passive or Sympathetical Perceptions of Individual Things anteceding; it is therefore conceived by many, that they are nothing else but thin and Evanid Images of those Sensible Ideas, and therefore that all Intellection and Knowledge ascends from Sense, and Intellection is nothing but the Improvement or Result of Sense. Yet notwithstanding it is most certainly true, that they proceed from a quite different Power of the Soul, whereby it actively protrudes its own Immediate Objects from within it self, and Comprehends Individuals without it, not Passively or consequentially, but as it were Proleptically, and not with an Ascending, but with a Descending Perception; whereby the Mind first reflecting upon it self, and its own Ideas, virtually contained in its own Omniform Cognoscitive Power, and thence descending downward, comprehends Individual Things under them. So that Knowledge doth not begin in Individuals, but end in them. And therefore they are but the Secondary Objects of Intellection, the Soul taking its first Rise from within it self, and so by its own inward Cognoscitive Power comprehending Things without it. Else how would God have Knowledge? And if we know as God knows, then do we know or gain Knowledge by Universals. In which Sense (though not in that other of Protagoras) the Soul may be truly said to be the Measure of all Things.
(IV.iii.13, pp 214-9)",,19508,"","""Now I observe that it is so far from being true, that all our Objective Cogitations or Ideas are Corporeal Effluxes or Radiations from Corporeal Things without, or impressed upon the Soul from them in a gross Corporeal Manner, as a Signature or Stamp is imprinted by a Seal upon a piece of Wax or Clay; that (as I have before hinted) this is not true sometimes of the Sensible Ideas themselves.""",Impressions and Writing,2012-01-22 20:38:50 UTC,"Book IV, Chapter iii"
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 21:00:46 UTC,"[...] This is just as if one should say, that there is indeed a Brightness or Lucidity in the Sun, but yet notwithstanding the Light which is in the Air, is not derived from that Light which is in the Body of the Sun, but springs immediately out of the Power of the dark Air; which being a Thing apparently absurd, it may be presumed that this Assertion is nothing but a verbal and pretended Acknowledgement of a God, that has an antecedent and an independent Knowledge, made by such as really deny the same; for otherwise, to what Purpose should they so violently and distortedly pervert the natural Order and Dependency of Things in the Universe, and cut off that Cognation and Connexion which is betwixt Things imperfect and Things perfect of the same Kind, betwixt created Minds and the increated Mind, which is the intellectual Scale or Ladder by which we climb up to God, if they did really believe and acknowledge any such Thing. But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues that Aristotle speaks of, ""that fetched the Original of God and all Things out of Night,"" or the dark Chaos of Matter; that held there is no God at all, or that blind and Senseless Matter and Chance are the only Original of all Things.
(IV.iv.14, pp. 260-1)",,19514,"","""But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues that Aristotle speaks of, 'that fetched the Original of God and all Things out of Night,' or the dark Chaos of Matter; that held there is no God at all, or that blind and Senseless Matter and Chance are the only Original of all Things.""",Impressions,2012-01-22 21:00:46 UTC,"Book IV, Chapter iv"
7211,"",Reading in Google Books,2012-04-10 15:04:07 UTC,"That Master-Maxim, wondrous is the Force
With which thro' Life it urges on our Course!
For tho' right Reason should her Beams display,
And dart new Lustre on our clouded Way;
Unless Philosophy, with antient Strength,
Support her Empire to Life's utmost Length;
Unless, in Passion's Spite, we dare be free,
(What Few have been, and Few will ever be)
That pristine Turn, that System, we shall find
The Stamp, the Spring, the Measure of the Mind!
(ll. 21-30, pp. 306-7)",,19669,"The idea of the ""master-maxim"" is connected, in a note, with the idea of a ""ruling passion.""","""For tho' right Reason should her Beams display, / And dart new Lustre on our clouded Way; / Unless Philosophy, with antient Strength, / Support her Empire to Life's utmost Length; / Unless, in Passion's Spite, we dare be free, / (What Few have been, and Few will ever be) / That pristine Turn, that System, we shall find / The Stamp, the Spring, the Measure of the Mind!""","Empire, Impressions, and Optics",2012-04-10 15:04:52 UTC,""
7440,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-14 19:55:41 UTC,"It is easie to imagine the Princess's surprize upon this occasion: Elizabeth's promises had given her some hopes, but she expected not so speedy a performance of them; she had not heard one word of her arrival, and not being able to conceive by what Enchantment she saw her at her awaking. Pardon me, Madam (said she in Saluting her) if I still am doubtful of what I hear, since I doubt even of what I see, and since my eyes dare hardly assure me that you are the Queen. I did indeed imagine (replied the Queen) that you would not easily believe me at the first; but the news I tell you, will for that reason be more agreeable unto you, and it shall be your fault only, if you find them not more true, than unexpected. All these assurances made but weak impressions on the Princess's Spirit, she felt something at the bottom of her heart, which would not suffer her to receive the joy which such news ought to give her, and this beam of hope appeared to her like a Sun shine just before a Storm, which it seemed willing to disperse.
(pp. 120-1)",,20710,"","""All these assurances made but weak impressions on the Princess's Spirit, she felt something at the bottom of her heart, which would not suffer her to receive the joy which such news ought to give her, and this beam of hope appeared to her like a Sun shine just before a Storm, which it seemed willing to disperse.""",Impressions,2013-06-14 19:55:41 UTC,""
3476,"","Reading Rayna Kalas, Frame, Glass, Verse: The Technology of Poetic Invention in the English Renaissance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), 148.",2014-07-31 20:03:22 UTC,"II To discover then the error and ignorance of this opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, any man may see plainly that these men doe not observe and consider, That it was not that Pure and Primitive Knowledge of Nature, by the light whereof man did give names to other Creatures in Paradise, as they were brought before him, according to their Proprieties, which gave the occasion to the Fall; but it was that proud knowledge of Good and Evill, with an intent to shake of God and to give Law unto himselfe. Neither is it any Quantity of Knowledge; how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swel; for nothing can fill, much lesse extend the soule of man but God, and the contemplation of God: therefore Solomon speaking of the two Principall senses of Inquisition, the Eye and the Eare,* affirmes That the Eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the Eare with hearing; and if there be no fulnesse, then is the Continent greater then the Content. So of Knowledge it selfe & the Mind of Man, whereto the Sences are but Reporters, he defines like wise in the words plac't after the Calendar or Ephemerides which he makes of the diversity of times and seasons for all Actions and Purposes,* concluding thus, God hath made all things Beautifull and Decent in the true returne of their seasons; also he hath placed the world in mans heart, yet cannot man finde out the worke which God worketh from the beginning unto the end: By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of things and the vicisitude of times, but raised also to finde out and to discerne the inviolable lawes and the infallible decrees of Nature. And although he seem to insinuate that the supreme or summary law of Nature, which he calleth the worke which God worketh from the beginning to the end, is not possible to be found out by man, yet that doth not derogate from the Capacity of the Mind, but may be referred to the impediments of knowledge, as the shortnesse of life, the ill conjunction of labours deprav'd, and unfaithfull Tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand; and many other inconveniences wherewith the condition of man is ensnared and involv'd. For that no parcell of the world is denied to mans inquiry, or invention he cleerly declares in another place, where he saith,*The spirit of a man is as the Lamp of God wherewith he searcheth the inwards of all secrets. ยง If then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no danger at all from the Proportion or Quantity of knowledge how large soever, lest it should make it swell or outcompasse it selfe, but meerly in the Quality, which being in Quantity more or lesse, if it be taken without the true Corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of malignity, or venome full of flatuous symptomes. This Antidote, or Corrective spice, the mixture whereof tempers knowledge and makes it so soveraigne is Charity, which the Apostle immediatly addes in the former clause, saying,*Knowledge blowes up, but Charity builds up; Not unlike to that which he delivers in an other place,*If I spake (saith he) with the tongues of Men and Angels and had not Charity, it were but as a tinkling Cymball: Not but that it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongus of Men and Angels, but because if it be sever'd from Charity, and not referr'd to the publique good of Mankind, it rather exhibites a vaine and empty glory, then any substantiall and solid fruit.
(pp. 5-7 in EEBO-TCP edition)",,24381,"","""By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of things and the vicisitude of times, but raised also to finde out and to discerne the inviolable lawes and the infallible decrees of Nature.""",Mirror,2014-07-31 20:04:00 UTC,""