work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5081,"","Searching ""brain"" and ""impression"" in HDIS (Prose)",2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,"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)",2011-12-20,13664,•I've included twice: Impression and Niche,"""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.""",Impression,2011-12-20 18:00:29 UTC,"Vol. 1, Book 1, Chap. 2"
5081,Memory,"Searching ""brain"" and ""impression"" in HDIS (Prose)",2005-05-18 00:00:00 UTC,"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)",2011-12-20,13667,"","""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.""",Impression and Throne,2011-12-20 19:31:57 UTC,"Vol. 1, Book 1, Chap. 2"
5130,"","Searching ""stamp"" and ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry); found again ""breast""",2005-04-07 00:00:00 UTC,"Thou waitest still, when Thee I know,
A larger blessing to bestow,
A second gift impart,
(The sinless mind, the farther rest,)
And stamp Thine image on my breast,
And fill my emptied heart.
",2012-07-05,13847,"","""And stamp Thine image on my breast, / And fill my emptied heart.""",Impressions,2012-07-05 15:16:09 UTC,From Isaiah.
7094,As it Were,Reading in Google Books,2011-09-15 17:39:02 UTC,"7. An idea attended with great pleasure or pain makes a deep impression on the memory, i. e. a deep trace on the brain, the spirits being then violently impelled.
Locke's Ess. I. ii. c. x. § 3.
8. The power of recollecting differs extremely at different times: and 'tis generally strongest, when we are most brisk and lively.
9. We remember that best in the morning, which we learnt just before we went to sleep: because, say the Cartesians, the traces made then are not apt to be effaced by the motions of the spirits, as they would, if new objects of sensation had presented themselves; and during this interval, they have (as it were) time to stiffen.
10. Sensible ideas gradually decay in the memory if they be not refreshed by new sensations; the traces perhaps wearing out: yet they may last many years.
Locke's Ess. I. ii. c. x. § 4, 5.
11. When a train of ideas is very familiar to the mind, they often follow one another in the memory without any laborious recollection, and so as to arise almost instantaneously and mechanically; as in writing, singing, &c. the traces between them being worn like beaten roads.
Locke's Ess. I. ii. c. xxxiii. § 6.
12. The memory is a faculty which is almost incessantly exercised while thought continues; (though the instances of laborious recollection are comparatively few:) nor do we ever find the human mind entirely stript of it, though it be often impaired.
(Part I, Proposition VIII, p. 25)",,19168,"","""We remember that best in the morning, which we learnt just before we went to sleep: because, say the Cartesians, the traces made then are not apt to be effaced by the motions of the spirits, as they would, if new objects of sensation had presented themselves; and during this interval, they have (as it were) time to stiffen.""",Impressions,2011-09-15 17:39:02 UTC,""
7094,"",Reading in Google Books,2011-09-15 17:40:40 UTC,"7. An idea attended with great pleasure or pain makes a deep impression on the memory, i. e. a deep trace on the brain, the spirits being then violently impelled.
Locke's Ess. I. ii. c. x. § 3.
8. The power of recollecting differs extremely at different times: and 'tis generally strongest, when we are most brisk and lively.
9. We remember that best in the morning, which we learnt just before we went to sleep: because, say the Cartesians, the traces made then are not apt to be effaced by the motions of the spirits, as they would, if new objects of sensation had presented themselves; and during this interval, they have (as it were) time to stiffen.
10. Sensible ideas gradually decay in the memory if they be not refreshed by new sensations; the traces perhaps wearing out: yet they may last many years.
Locke's Ess. I. ii. c. x. § 4, 5.
11. When a train of ideas is very familiar to the mind, they often follow one another in the memory without any laborious recollection, and so as to arise almost instantaneously and mechanically; as in writing, singing, &c. the traces between them being worn like beaten roads.
Locke's Ess. I. ii. c. xxxiii. § 6.
12. The memory is a faculty which is almost incessantly exercised while thought continues; (though the instances of laborious recollection are comparatively few:) nor do we ever find the human mind entirely stript of it, though it be often impaired.
(Part I, Proposition VIII, p. 25)",,19169,"","""Sensible ideas gradually decay in the memory if they be not refreshed by new sensations; the traces perhaps wearing out: yet they may last many years.""",Impressions,2011-09-15 17:40:40 UTC,""
7094,"",Reading in Google Books,2011-09-15 17:44:05 UTC,"The probability of the Cartesian hypothesis will appear from considering,
1. How well it agrees with the various phænomena mentioned above.
2. The analogy upon this hypothesis between sensation and memory, the one arising from impressions made on the brain, the other depending on traces continued there.
3. The instances in which memory has been almost wholly lost at once by a sudden violent blow upon the head; insomuch that a great scholar has entirely lost the knowledge of letters by it, and has been forced with infinite labour to begin again from the elements of them: and in other instances the recollection has been gradual, and the events of childhood and youth have
been recovered first.
(Part I, Proposition VIII, Demonstration, pp. 25-6)",,19171,"","""The analogy upon this hypothesis between sensation and memory, the one arising from impressions made on the brain, the other depending on traces continued there.""",Impressions,2011-09-15 17:44:05 UTC,""
7544,"",Google Books,2013-07-14 04:33:15 UTC,"From that moment I took an interest in your mutual happiness, which will never abate; and, imagining it in my power to remove every obstacle to your bliss, I made an indiscreet application to your father; the bad success of which is one motive to animate my zeal in your favour. Indulge me so far as to hear me, and perhaps I may yet repair the mischief I have occasioned. Examine your heart, Eloisa, and see if it be possible for you to extinguish the flame with which it burns. There was a time, perhaps, when you could have stopt its progress; but, if Eloisa fell from a state of innocence, how will she resist after her fall? How will ihe be able to withstand the power of love triumphing over her weakness, and armed with the dangerous weapons of her part pleasures. Let not your heart impose on itself; but renounce the fallacious presumption that seduces you: you are undone, if you are still to combat with love: you will be debased and vanquished, while a sense of your debasement will by degrees will by degrees stifle all your virtues. Love has insinuated itself too far into your mind, for you ever to drive it thence. It has eaten its way, has penetrated into its inmoft recesses, like a corrosive menstruum, whose impressions you will never be able to efface, without deftroying at the same time all that virtuous sensibility you received from the hands of nature: root out love from your mind, and you will have nothing left in it truly estimable. Incapable of changing the condition of your heart, what then remains for you to do? Nothing sure but to render your union legitimate. To this end, I will propose to you the only method that now offers. Make use of it, while it is yet time, and add to innocence and virtue, the exercise of that good sense with which heaven has endowed you.
(I, pp. 262-3)",,21736,"","""Love has insinuated itself too far into your mind, for you ever to drive it thence. It has eaten its way, has penetrated into its inmoft recesses, like a corrosive menstruum, whose impressions you will never be able to efface, without deftroying at the same time all that virtuous sensibility you received from the hands of nature: root out love from your mind, and you will have nothing left in it truly estimable.""",Impressions,2013-07-14 04:33:15 UTC,""
5107,"",Text from ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 21:50:21 UTC,"The natural rate of succession, depends also in some degree upon the particular perceptions that compose the train. An agreeable object, taking a strong hold of the mind, occasions a slower succession than when the objects are indifferent. Grandeur and novelty fix the attention for a considerable time, excluding all other ideas; and the mind thus occupied feels no vacuity. Some emotions, by hurrying the mind from object to object, accelerate the succession. Where the train is composed of connected objects, the succession is quick. For it is so ordered by nature, that the mind goes easily and sweetly along connected objects*. On the other hand, the succession must be slow where the train is composed of unconnected objects. An unconnected object, finding no ready access to the mind, requires time to make an impression. And that it is not admitted without a struggle, appears from the unsettled state of the mind for some moments after it is presented, wavering betwixt it and the former train. During this short period, one or other of the former objects will intrude, perhaps oftener than once, till the attention be fixt entirely upon the new object. The same observations are applicable to ideas suggested by language. The mind can bear a quick succession of related ideas. But an unrelated idea, for which the mind is not prepared, takes time to make a distinct impression; and therefore a train composed of such ideas, ought to proceed with a slow pace. Hence an epic poem, a play, or any story connected in all its parts, may be perused in a shorter time, than a book of maxims or apothegms, of which a quick succession creates both confusion and fatigue.
(I.ix, pp. 383-5)",,23300,"","""Some emotions, by hurrying the mind from object to object, accelerate the succession. Where the train is composed of connected objects, the succession is quick. For it is so ordered by nature, that the mind goes easily and sweetly along connected objects. On the other hand, the succession must be slow where the train is composed of unconnected objects. An unconnected object, finding no ready access to the mind, requires time to make an impression. And that it is not admitted without a struggle, appears from the unsettled state of the mind for some moments after it is presented, wavering betwixt it and the former train. During this short period, one or other of the former objects will intrude, perhaps oftener than once, till the attention be fixt entirely upon the new object.""",Impressions,2014-07-03 15:24:26 UTC,""
5107,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-11-18 21:51:19 UTC,"The natural rate of succession, depends also in some degree upon the particular perceptions that compose the train. An agreeable object, taking a strong hold of the mind, occasions a slower succession than when the objects are indifferent. Grandeur and novelty fix the attention for a considerable time, excluding all other ideas; and the mind thus occupied feels no vacuity. Some emotions, by hurrying the mind from object to object, accelerate the succession. Where the train is composed of connected objects, the succession is quick. For it is so ordered by nature, that the mind goes easily and sweetly along connected objects*. On the other hand, the succession must be slow where the train is composed of unconnected objects. An unconnected object, finding no ready access to the mind, requires time to make an impression. And that it is not admitted without a struggle, appears from the unsettled state of the mind for some moments after it is presented, wavering betwixt it and the former train. During this short period, one or other of the former objects will intrude, perhaps oftener than once, till the attention be fixt entirely upon the new object. The same observations are applicable to ideas suggested by language. The mind can bear a quick succession of related ideas. But an unrelated idea, for which the mind is not prepared, takes time to make a distinct impression; and therefore a train composed of such ideas, ought to proceed with a slow pace. Hence an epic poem, a play, or any story connected in all its parts, may be perused in a shorter time, than a book of maxims or apothegms, of which a quick succession creates both confusion and fatigue.
(I.ix, pp. 383-5)",,23301,"","""The mind can bear a quick succession of related ideas. But an unrelated idea, for which the mind is not prepared, takes time to make a distinct impression; and therefore a train composed of such ideas, ought to proceed with a slow pace.""",Impressions,2013-11-18 21:51:19 UTC,""
5088,"",Reading. Text from ECCO-TCP.,2016-02-18 06:16:45 UTC,"Dull organs, dear Sir, in the first place. Secondly, slight and transient impressions made by objects when the said organs are not dull. And, thirdly, a memory like unto a sieve, not able to retain what it has received.--Call down Dolly your chamber-maid, and I will give you my cap and bell along with it, if I make not this matter so plain that Dolly herself shall understand it as well as Malbranch.-- When Dolly has indited her epistle to Robin, and has thrust her arm into the bottom of her pocket hanging by her right-side;--take that opportunity to recollect that the organs and faculties of perception, can, by nothing in this world, be so aptly typified and explained as by that one thing which Dolly's hand is in search of.--Your organs are not so dull that I should inform you,--'tis an inch, Sir, of red seal-wax.
When this is melted and dropped upon the letter, if Dolly fumbles too long for her thimble, till the wax is over harden'd, it will not receive the mark of her thimble from the usual impulse which was wont to imprint it. Very well: If Dolly's wax, for want of better, is bees-wax, or of a temper too soft,--tho' it may receive,--it will not hold the impression, how hard soever Dolly thrusts against it; and last of all, supposing the wax good, and eke the thimble, but applied thereto in careless haste, as her Mistress rings the bell;--in any one of these three cases, the print, left by the thimble, will be as unlike the prototype as a brassjack.
Now you must understand that not one of these was the true cause of the confusion in my uncle Toby's discourse; and it is for that very reason I enlarge upon them so long, after the manner of great physiologists,--to shew the world what it did not arise from.
What it did arise from, I have hinted above, and a fertile source of obscurity it is,--and ever will be,--and that is the unsteady uses of words which have perplexed the clearest and most exalted understandings.
(II.ii, pp. 13-16)
",,24816,"Sterne's run at Plato's Theatetus (and Descartes?) Should have included in BOOK! (USE IN ENTRY), but no matter, I suppose. THe best thing about this passage is that the elaboration is unceremoniously dismissed: ""not one of these was the true cause"" ","""When Dolly has indited her epistle to Robin, and has thrust her arm into the bottom of her pocket hanging by her right-side;--take that opportunity to recollect that the organs and faculties of perception, can, by nothing in this world, be so aptly typified and explained as by that one thing which Dolly's hand is in search of.--Your organs are not so dull that I should inform you,--'tis an inch, Sir, of red seal-wax.""",Impressions,2016-02-18 14:03:20 UTC,"Vol. II, Chap. ii"