work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3866,"","Reading Arthur A. Cash, ""The Sermon in Tristram Shandy."" ELH 31:4 (1964): 399.",2012-06-12 20:34:32 UTC,"12. Thirdly, probabilities, which cross men's appetites and prevailing passions, run the same fate. Let ever so much probability hang on one side of a covetous man's reasoning, and money on the other; it is easy to foresee which will outweigh. Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them. Tell a man passionately in love, that he is jilted; bring a score of witnesses of the falsehood of his mistress, it is ten to one but three kind words of hers shall invalidate all their testimonies, Quod volumus, facile credits; What suits our wishes, is forwardly believed; is, I suppose, what every one hath more than once experimented: And though men cannot always openly gainsay or resist the force of manifest probabilities that make against them, yet yield they not to the argument. Not but that it is the nature of the understanding constantly to close with the more probable side; but yet a man hath a power to suspend and restrain its inquiries, and not permit a full and satisfactory examination, as far as the matter in question is capable, and will bear it to be made. Until that be done, there will be always these two ways left of evading the most apparent probabilities.
(IV.xx.12)",,19792,"","""Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them.""",Empire and Impressions,2012-06-12 20:34:32 UTC,IV.xx.12
7410,"",Searching in Google Books,2013-06-12 13:48:22 UTC,"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.
(III.i, p. 28)",,20543,"INTEREST: a ""visionary"" battle, literalized in the brain.","""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.""",Impressions and Inhabitants,2013-06-12 13:48:41 UTC,"Act III, Scene i"
7938,"",Reading,2014-06-20 16:20:33 UTC,"The prince of Persia was not satisfied to read the letter once; he thought he had read it with too little attention, and therefore read it again with more leisure; and as he read, sometimes he uttered sighs, sometimes he wept, and sometimes he discovered transports of joy and affection, as one who was touched with what he read. In a word, he could not keep his eyes off those characters drawn by so lovely a hand, and therefore began to read it a third time. Then Ebn Thaher told him that the confidant could not stay, and that he ought to think of giving an answer. Alas! cries the prince, how would you have me answer so kind a letter? In what terms shall I express the trouble that I am in? My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and my thoughts destroy one another the same moment they are conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper, or a reed to write. Having spoke thus, he took out of a little desk, paper, cane, and ink.
(I, p. 163; cf. V, p. 111 in ECCO; pp. 326-7 in Mack's ed.)",,24060,"","""My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and my thoughts destroy one another the same moment they are conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper, or a reed to write.""",Impressions,2014-06-20 16:20:33 UTC,""
7945,"",Reading (in the British Library),2014-06-22 03:08:34 UTC,"III. We may fetch an Argument of the Wisdom and Providence of God from the convenient situation and disposition of the Parts and Members of our Bodies: They are seated most conveniently for Use, for Ornament, and for mutual Assistance. First, for Use; So we see the Senses of such eminent Use for our well-being, situate in the Head, as Sentinels in a Watch-Tower, to receive and conveigh to the Soul the impressions of external Objects. Sensus autem interpretes ac nutii rerum in capite tanquam in arce mirifice ad usus necessarios & facti & collati sunt. Cic. de Nat. Deorum. [...]
(p. 157)",,24084,"","""First, for Use; So we see the Senses of such eminent Use for our well-being, situate in the Head, as Sentinels in a Watch-Tower, to receive and conveigh to the Soul the impressions of external Objects""",Impressions and Inhabitants,2014-06-22 03:08:34 UTC,""