updated_at,id,text,theme,metaphor,work_id,reviewed_on,provenance,created_at,comments,context,dictionary
2011-08-25 20:16:46 UTC,10374,"But if the Remarker thinks, that if all our thoughts cease in sound Sleep, all our Ideas are extinct, and must be new imprest; I desire him to consider, when a Sleeping or Waking Man thinks, what becomes of all those Ideas which he does not actually perceive in his own mind, for the mind is capable of taking notice but of very few at once: Must not all the rest by this Argument be extinct? And so we must have them new Imprest; and are as it were, New Born when ever we have any Ideas which we have not always actually perceiv'd, i.e. every time we pass from one thought to another. This is a sure consequence, if when all our thoughts cease, all our Ideas must be new imprest, unless a Man cou'd actually perceive all the Ideas he ever had at once; for his having only one thought in his mind, can no more keep any other there, or excite any other that it has no connexion with, than if he had no thought at all: I am thinking for Example, in my Sleep, of a Horse; his Beauty, Strength, and Usefulness: Does this thought preserve in my mind, the Ideas of a Church, of Happiness or Misery? Or can it help me to any of them, when I have occasion for them? If not, then these Ideas must be new imprest when I awake; but if they remain in the Soul when I was only thinking of a Horse, whereever they are bestow'd, it may be presum'd, there is room for that one idea more without thrusting out another to give it place: and when that one is among them, I see no more reason why they must be all new imprest, than that the others must have been new imprest when I only thought of that one unless, it be suppos'd that the Soul has always, just one idea [more] than there is place for in the repository of its Ideas; and if that happen to crou'd in, before another has got out, they will all be stifled together, or fly away for Air.
(pp. 33-4)","","But if ideas ""remain in the Soul when I was only thinking of a Horse, whereever they are bestow'd, it may be presum'd, there is room for that one idea more without thrusting out another to give it place: and when that one is among them, I see no more reason why they must be all new imprest, than that the others must have been new imprest when I only thought of that one unless, it be suppos'd that the Soul has always, just one idea [more] than there is place for in the repository of its Ideas; and if that happen to crou'd in, before another has got out, they will all be stifled together, or fly away for Air.""",3995,2011-08-25,"Reading in ECCO; found again reading Jonathan Kramnick's Actions and Objects (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2010), 166-7.",2005-03-23 00:00:00 UTC,"•Great Population metaphor.
•Crappy scan of the microfilm makes some of this illegible.","",Inhabitants
2013-08-07 14:45:08 UTC,10784,"These Out-guards of the Mind are sent abroad,
And still patrolling beat the neighb'ring Road:
Or to the Parts remote obedient fly,
Keep Posts advanc'd, and on the Frontier lye.
The watchful Centinels at ev'ry Gate,
At ev'ry Passage to the Senses wait.
Still travel to and fro the Nervous way,
And their Impressions to the Brain convey,
Where their Report the Vital Envoys make,
And with new Orders are remanded back.
Quick, as a darted Beam of Light, they go,
Thro' diff'rent Paths to diff'rent Organs flow,
Whence they reflect as swiftly to the Brain,
To give it Pleasure, or to give it Pain.
(VI, ll. 670-683, pp. 305-6)","","""Still travel to and fro the Nervous way, / And their Impressions to the Brain convey, / Where their Report the Vital Envoys make, / And with new Orders are remanded back.""",4167,,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,"",Book VI,Inhabitants
2013-07-22 14:25:14 UTC,11069,"Last, to enjoy her Sense of Feeling
(A thing She much delights to deal in)
A thousand little Nerves She sends
Quite to our Toes, and Fingers Ends;
And These in Gratitude again
Return their Spirits to the Brain;
In which their Figure being printed
(As just before, I think, I hinted)
Alma inform'd can try the Case,
As She had been upon the Place.
Thus, while the Judge gives diff'rent Journeys
To Country Counsel, and Attornies;
He on the Bench in quiet sits,
Deciding, as They bring the Writs.
The Pope thus prays and sleeps at Rome,
And very seldom stirs from Home:
Yet sending forth his Holy Spies,
And having heard what They advise,
He rules the Church's blest Dominions;
And sets Men's Faith by His Opinions.
(p. 472-3, ll. 70-89)","","""A thousand little Nerves She sends / Quite to our Toes, and Fingers Ends; / And These in Gratitude again / Return their Spirits to the Brain; / In which their Figure being printed / (As just before, I think, I hinted) / Alma inform'd can try the Case, / As She had seen upon the Place. // Thus, while the Judge gives diff'rent Journeys / To Country Counsel, and Attornies; / He on the Bench in quiet sits, / Deciding, as They bring the Writs."" ",4253,2009-01-23,HDIS,2004-02-27 00:00:00 UTC,"•Matthew sets up the Cantabrigian position with which his own ""system"" and the Aristotelian position contrast.
•The stanzas that follow continue to elaborate the personification: nerves and taste, drums in the ear, nerves and touch. Only this second and third figures have I included in the database. See the next entries.
•I've included twice: Printing and Judge
•INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY.","",Court and Inhabitants and Writing
2011-12-20 19:28:19 UTC,13669,"Upon this I mounted into the censorium of his brain, to learn from the spirit of consciousness, which you call self, the cause of so uncommon a change, as it is contrary to the fundamental rules of our order, ever to give up an heart of which we once get possession.
I found the spirit very busy, though I thought somewhat odly employed: she was running over a number of niches, or impressions, on the fibres of the brain, some of which I observed she renewed with such force, that she almost effaced others, which she passed over untouched, though interspersed among them. The sight of me seemed to suspend her works a moment, but as if that pause was only to recover strength, she instantly renewed her labour with greater assiduity.
I looked at her, my desire to know the meaning of what she was doing, and to signify the cause of my visit, to which she returned me this answer in a glance, that interrupted not her work.
(I see you wonder, that I speak of this spirit, though the self of a man, as if it was a female; but in this there is a mystery; every spirit is of both sexes, but as the female is the worthier with us, we take our denomination from that.)
You are surprised, (looked she) to find me so earnestly engaged, in work which you do not understand; but in this work consists my very essence. This place, where we are, is the seat of memory; and these traces, which you see me running over thus, are the impressions made on the brain by a communication of the impressions made on the senses by external objects. --These first impressions are called ideas, which are lodged in this repository of the memory, in these marks, by running which over, I can raise the same ideas, when I please, which differ from their first appearance only in this, that, on their return, they come with the familiarity of a former acquaintance.
How this communication though is made, I cannot so well inform you; whether it is by the oscillation of the nervous fibres, or by the operation of a certain invisible fluid, called animal spirits, on the nerves; no more than I can explain to you, how my touching these marks, on this material substance the brain, can raise ideas in the immaterial mind, and with the addition of acquaintance beside; for these are matters not quite fully settled among the learned.
All I know is, that the thing is agreed to be so by some, or other, or all of these means; and that my whole employment, and end of being, is to touch them over, and acknowledge their acquaintance thus; without my doing which, a man would no longer continue the same person, for in this acquaintance, which is called consciousness, does all personal identity consist.
(pp. 8-11)",Lockean Philosophy; Personal Identity,"""These first impressions are called ideas, which are lodged in this repository of the memory, in these marks, by running which over, I can raise the same ideas, when I please, which differ from their first appearance only in this, that, on their return, they come with the familiarity of a former acquaintance.""",5081,2011-12-20,Searching in HDIS (Prose),2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,•Footnote cites Locke,"Vol. 1, Book 1, Chap. 2",Impressions and Inhabitants
2011-08-30 20:14:19 UTC,19113,"They travel, perhaps, into foreign countries; a proceeding which naturally tends to weaken their nursery prejudice in favour of the Religion in which they were bred, and by removing them from all means of public worship, to relax their practical habits of Religion. They return home, and commonly are either hurried round in the vortex of dissipation, or engage with the ardour of youthful minds in some public or professional pursuit. If they read or hear any thing about Christianity, it is commonly only about those tenets which are subjects of controversy: and what reaches their ears of the Bible, from their occasional attendance at church; though it may sometimes impress them with an idea of the purity of Christian morality, contains much which, coming thus detached, perplexes and offends them, and suggests various doubts and startling objections, which a farther acquaintance with the Scripture would remove. Thus growing more and more to know Christianity only by the difficulties it contains; sometimes tempted by the ambition of shewing themselves superior to vulgar prejudice, and always prompted by the natural pride of the human heart to cast off their subjection to dogmas imposed on them; disgusted, perhaps, by the immoral lives of some professed Christians, by the weaknesses and absurdities of others, and by what they observe to be the implicit belief of numbers, whom they see and know to be equally ignorant with themselves, many doubts and suspicions of greater or less extent spring up within them. These doubts enter into the mind at first almost imperceptibly: they exist only as vague indistinct surmises, and by no means take the precise shape or the substance of a formed opinion. At first, probably, they even offend and startle by their intrusion: but by degrees the unpleasant sensations which they once excited wear off: the mind grows more familiar with them. A confused sense (for such it is, rather than a formed idea) of its being desirable that their doubts should prove well founded, and of the comfort and enlargement which would be afforded by that proof, lends them much secret aid. The impression becomes deeper; not in consequence of being reinforced by fresh arguments, but merely by dint of having longer rested in the mind; and as they increase in force, they creep on and extend themselves. At length they diffuse themselves over the whole of Religion, and possess the mind in undisturbed occupancy.
(pp. 480-2)","","""The impression becomes deeper; not in consequence of being reinforced by fresh arguments, but merely by dint of having longer rested in the mind; and as they [doubts] increase in force, they creep on and extend themselves. At length they diffuse themselves over the whole of Religion, and possess the mind in undisturbed occupancy.""",7075,,"Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",2011-08-30 20:14:19 UTC,An interesting description of invasion. USE in EMPIRE or INHABITANTS?,Chapter VII,Empire and Inhabitants
2011-09-20 16:12:36 UTC,19191,"A Good Conscience is the Testimony of a Good Life, and the Reward of it. This is it that fortifies the Mind against Fortune, when a Man has gotten the Mastery of his Passions; plac'd his Treasure, and his Security within himself; learned to be content with his Condition; and that Death is no Evil in itself but only the End of Man. He that has dedicated his Mind to Virtue, and to the Good of Human Society, whereof he is a Member, has consummated all that is either Profitable or Necessary for him to Know, or Do toward the Establishment of his Peace. Every Man has a Judge, and a Witness within himself, of all the Good, and lll that he Does; which inspires us with great Thoughts, and administers to us wholsome Counsels. We have a Veneration for all the Works pf Nature, the Heads of Rivers, and the Springs of Medicinal Waters: the Horrors of Groves, and of Caves, strike us with an Impression of Religion and Worship. To see a Man Fearless in Dangers, Untainted with Lusts, Happy in Adversity, Compos'd in a Tumult, and Laughing at all those Things which are generally either Coveted or Feared; all Men must acknowledge, that this can be nothing else but a Beam of Divinity that Influences a Mortal Body. And this is it that carries us to the Disquisition of Things Divine, and Human; What the state of the World was before the Distribution of the First Matter into Parts; what Power it was that drew Order out of that Confusion, and gave Laws both to the whole, and to every Particle thereof; what that Space is beyond the World; and whence proceed the several Operations of Nature. Shall any Man see the Glory, and Order of the Universe; so many scatter'd Parts, and Qualities wrought into one Mass; such a Medly of Things, which are yet distinguished; the World enlighten'd, and the Disorders of it so wonderfully Regulated; and, shall he not consider the Author, and Disposer of all this; and, whither we our selves shall go, when our Souls shall bedeliver'd from the Slavery of our Flesh? The whole Creation, we see, conforms to the Dictates of Providence, and follows God both as a Governour, and as a Guide. A Great, a Good, and a Right Mind, is a kind of Divinity lodg'd in Flesh, and may be the Blessing of a Slave, as well as of a Prince; it came from Heaven, and to Heaven it must return; and it is a kind of Heavenly Felicity, which a pure, and virtuous Mind enjoys, in some Degree, even upon Earth: Whereas Temples of Honour are but empty Names, which probably owe their Beginning either to Ambition, or to Violence. I am strangely transported with the Thoughts of Eternity; Nay, with the Belief of it; for I have a profound Veneration for the Opinions of Great Men, especially when they promise Things so much to my Satisfaction: for they do Promise them, though they do not Prove them. In the Question of the Immortality of the the Soul, it goes very far with me, a General Consent to the Opinion of a Future Reward, and Punishment; which Meditation raises me to the Contempt of this Lise, in hopes of a Better. But still, though we know that we have a Soul; yet, What the Soul is, How, and from Whence, we are utterly Ignorant: This only we understand, that all the Good, and lll we do, is under the Dominion of the Mind; that a Clear Conscience states us in an Inviolable Peace: And, that the greatest Blessing in Nature, is that, which every honest Man may bestow upon himself.
The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind; tossed up and down, and persecuted with Punishments, Violences, and Diseases; but the Mind it self is Sacred, and Eternal, and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impression.
(pp. 138-40)","","""The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind; tossed up and down, and persecuted with Punishments, Violences, and Diseases; but the Mind it self is Sacred, and Eternal, and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impression.""",7097,,"Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",2011-09-20 16:12:36 UTC,"","Of A Happy Life, Chapter VI",Fetters
2012-03-05 16:36:21 UTC,19624,"I. The SOUL, inhabiting the Brain, or acting, where it doubtless does, immediately behind the Optic Nerves, stamps, instantaneously upon the Eye, and Eyebrow, a struck Image of conceiv'd Idea: And that in Fact it does This, and that it does it, in the very Instant of Conception, every Man must every Hour, experience, in his Act, and Attitude, of Thinking; for, no sooner can he set himself to ponder, or intensely meditate, on any Object, than he perceives his Eye, and Brow, imprintedly partaking, and assisting to produce Conception:--If the Image is a pleasing one, the Brow dilates; -- as if to give it Room -- if painfull, it contracts itself, as if it would evade or guard against a half-admitted Object. ------ In Both These, 'tis evident, the Optic Nerves receive Impression from the Thought, in the same Instant, that the Soul conceives it. (v)","","""The SOUL, inhabiting the Brain, or acting, where it doubtless does, immediately behind the Optic Nerves, stamps, instantaneously upon the Eye, and Eyebrow, a struck Image of conceiv'd Idea: And that in Fact it does This, and that it does it, in the very Instant of Conception, every Man must every Hour, experience, in his Act, and Attitude, of Thinking; for, no sooner can he set himself to ponder, or intensely meditate, on any Object, than he perceives his Eye, and Brow, imprintedly partaking, and assisting to produce Conception:--If the Image is a pleasing one, the Brow dilates; -- as if to give it Room -- if painfull, it contracts itself, as if it would evade or guard against a half-admitted Object.""",4909,,Reading at the Folger Library,2012-03-05 16:34:54 UTC,USE IN ENTRY: impressions inward/outward.,Dedication,Impressions and Inhabitants
2013-06-12 13:48:41 UTC,20543,"I Ang. See, see, he smiles amidst his Trance,
And shakes a visionary Lance,
His Brain is fill'd with loud Alarms,
Shouting Armies, clashing Arms,
The softer Prints of Love deface;
And Trumpets sound in ev'ry Trace.
Both. Glory Strives,
The Field is won,
Fame revives
And Love is Gone.