text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"O, Montagu! forgive me, if I sing
Thy wisdom tempered with the milder ray
Of soft humanity, and kindness bland:
So wide its influence, that the bright beams
Reach the low vale where mists of ignorance lodge,
Strike on the innate spark which lay immersed,
Thick-clogged, and almost quenched in total night--
On me it fell, and cheered my joyless heart.
Unwelcome is the first bright dawn of light
To the dark soul; impatient, she rejects,
And fain would push the heavenly stranger back;
She loathes the cranny which admits the day;
Confused, afraid of the intruding guest;
Disturbed, unwilling to receive the beam,
Which to herself her native darkness shows.
The effort rude to quench the cheering flame
Was mine, and e'en on Stella could I gaze
With sullen envy, and admiring pride,
Till, doubly roused by Montagu, the pair
Conspire to clear my dull, imprisoned sense,
And chase the mists which dimmed my visual beam.
Oft as I trod my native wilds alone,
Strong gusts of thought would rise, but rise to die;
The portals of the swelling soul ne'er oped
By liberal converse, rude ideas strove
Awhile for vent, but found it not, and died.
Thus rust the Mind's best powers. Yon starry orbs,
Majestic ocean, flowery vales, gay groves,
Eye-wasting lawns, and heaven-attempting hills
Which bound th' horizon, and which curb the view;
All those, with beauteous imagery, awaked
My ravished soul to ecstasy untaught,
To all the transport the rapt sense can bear;
But all expired, for want of powers to speak;
All perished in the mind as soon as born,
Erased more quick than cyphers on the shore,
O'er which cruel waves, unheedful roll.
Such timid rapture as young Edwin seized,
When his lone footsteps on the Sage obtrude,
Whose noble precept charmed his wondering
Such rapture filled Lactilla's vacant soul,
When the bright Moralist, in softness dressed,
Opes all the glories of the mental world,
Deigns to direct the infant thought, to prune
The budding sentiment, uprear the stalk
Of feeble fancy, bid idea live,
Woo the abstracted spirit form its cares,
And gently guide her to scenes of peace.
Mine was than balm, and mine the grateful heart,
Which breathes its thanks in rough, but timid strains.
(ll. 30-79, pp. 395-6)",2013-11-17 17:14:56 UTC,"""Yon starry orbs, / Majestic ocean, flowery vales, gay groves, / Eye-wasting lawns, and heaven-attempting hills / Which bound th' horizon, and which curb the view; / All those, with beauteous imagery, awaked / My ravished soul to ecstasy untaught, / To all the transport the rapt sense can bear; / But all expired, for want of powers to speak; / All perished in the mind as soon as born, / Erased more quick than cyphers on the shore, / O'er which cruel waves, unheedful roll.""",2003-07-29 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,Writing,•I've included all the stanzas but the first because of the density of metaphors (8 entries total).,Reading,14997,5612
"O dreadful chaos of the ruin'd mind!
Lost to itself, to virtue, human kind!
From earth, from heaven, a meteor flaming wide,
Link'd to no system, to no world allied;
A blank of Nature, vanish'd every thought
That Nature, Reason, that Experience taught,
Past, present, future trace, alike destroy'd,
Where Love alone can fill the mighty void:
That Love on unreturning pinions flown
We grasp a shade, the noble substance gone--
From one ador'd and once adoring, dream
Of Friendship's tenderness--ev'n cold esteem
(Humble our vows) rejected with disdain,
Ask a last conference, but a parting strain,
More suppliant still, the wretched suit advance,
Plead for a look, a momentary glance,
A latter token--on Destruction's brink
We catch the feeble plank of Hope, and sink.--",2009-09-14 19:42:39 UTC,"A ruined mind may be ""A blank of Nature, vanish'd every thought / That Nature, Reason, that Experience taught.""",2005-03-07 00:00:00 UTC,"",Blank Slate,,"","","Searching ""blank"" and ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry)",15053,5627
"DONNA ZEL.
It is needless; every word is imprinted in my memory. Yes, Fernando, I own thy image is engraven on my heart. To lose thee were everlasting wretchedness; but destiny, alas! is more powerful than love.
SONG.
The forest boughs, that oft have felt
The pruning Woodman's wound,
In vain accuse the axe and belt
With which they're lopt and bound:
Could I the arm of Fate direct,
Thy sorrows, Youth, should cease;
Thy days should Love and Joy protect,
Thy years should smile in peace.
",2009-09-14 19:42:39 UTC,"""I own thy image is engraven on my heart.""",2005-03-09 00:00:00 UTC,"Act II, scene 2i","",,"","","Searching ""engrav"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Drama)",15056,5629
"Fair sculpture of Ammon's young graces!
My lady with whim shall we tax?
On paper who marks thy faint traces,
Which Stella stamps lively in wax?
Of their hearts they make mutual confession:
That, cold to emotions once felt,
The mother's scarce yields to impression--
--The daughter's can soften and melt.",2009-09-14 19:42:41 UTC,"Hearts may scarce yield to impression while ""The daughter's can soften and melt""",2005-04-19 00:00:00 UTC,I've included the entire poem,"",,"",•INTEREST. REVISIT. Use in entry.
•Cross-reference: Allen Ramsay's poem on a seal of Homer's head,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),15066,5635
"I. Rules for rendering the Mind a tabula rasa, on which the hand of Nature is to write by observation and experiments: [end page 178] and for expelling the prejudices, which have retarded the progress of the useful Sciences and Arts.
Prejudices--
--common to the species
--peculiar to every individual
--from verbal distinctions
--from the authority of systems of Philosophy
(pp. 178-9)",2009-09-14 19:42:45 UTC,"""Rules for rendering the Mind a tabula rasa, on which the hand of Nature is to write by observation and experiments: and for expelling the prejudices, which have retarded the progress of the useful Sciences and Arts.""",2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,Part III,Blank Slate,,Writing,"","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",15091,5645
"LADY.
I am a stranger to them, Sir.--But your humanity must ever be engraved on my heart.",2012-07-05 17:01:25 UTC,"""But your humanity must ever be engraved on my heart.""",2005-03-09 00:00:00 UTC,"Act IV, scene i","",,Writing,"","Searching ""engrav"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Drama)",15101,5650
"That frequently happens; and when once a false idea is impressed, it is very difficult to erase it, particularly at your age; as you are not yet capable of distinguishing the false from the true.
(Vol. I, page 86).",2013-06-14 04:25:41 UTC,"""That frequently happens; and when once a false idea is impressed, it is very difficult to erase it, particularly at your age; as you are not yet capable of distinguishing the false from the true.""",2010-07-16 22:09:32 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,"","Contributed by PC Fleming, searching ""idea.""",17967,6749
"Then you must have remarked, that one of the greatest advantages of republican government, is the immediate influence it has over individuals, that it animates the general mass in every part; it gives life and activity, and consequently, makes known to each person his own worth, which, perhaps, in another form of government, he would have been unconscious of; it, at the same time, inspires public spirit, which, by a free profession of the same principles, unites all these different powers, and renders them useful in one common centre for the general good. Public schools, instituted upon good plans, are simpilar to this republican government, and procure their pupils the same advantages. The general mass is composed of children. The institution tends to inform each of his own value, and to increase it, Their union, teaches them to respect the fundamental rights of general society. Merit and talents, or rather the hope that fore-runs and convinces them, assigns to each his place. Justice there decides singly and uniformly, without respect to persons. Example, experience, and necessity are the preceptors who teach, or rather the masters who command. They converse not, they open not their mouths, they are silent, but they engrave their principles on the heart in indelible characters, instead of inconsistently crowding them on the memory. (Vol. II, pages 347-8)",2013-06-13 21:19:09 UTC,"""They converse not, they open not their mouths, they are silent, but they engrave their principles on the heart in indelible characters, instead of inconsistently crowding them on the memory.""",2010-07-17 15:56:17 UTC,Con. XX,"",,Writing,"","Contributed by PC Fleming, searching ""heart""",17978,6749
"The situation of the places of our birth, the climate and temperature of the air, the circumstances of our parents, their humours and dispositions; but more especially their method of treating us in our infant years, I am persuaded give bias to our manners and actions, through the whole course of our lives. Our minds are like blank paper, as a great philosopher has observed, and the first impressions they receive are generally the most permanent and powerful. What is commonly and vulgarly called our natural temper is only what we acquire, after our births, from the example of those from whom we receive our institution, or upon whom we depend. And agreeable to this, the mild conduct of my parents, and the engaging tenderness of their behaviour to every body, certainly fixed that good humour and complacency in my soul, that no succeeding misfortune had ever the power to efface. My disposition, as the reader will have frequent occasion to observe, was serious, but not unpliant, was gentle, but not slavish. My countenance was open, and my spirit intrepid. But as my designs were not lost in the clouds of gaiety, so neither did they render my vain, conceited, and pedantic. [...]
(I.ii, p. 9-10)",2012-07-29 17:17:46 UTC,"""Our minds are like blank paper, as a great philosopher has observed, and the first impressions they receive are generally the most permanent and powerful.""",2012-07-29 17:02:57 UTC,"Volume I, Chapter ii",Blank Slate,,Writing,"","Reading Christopher Flint's The Appearance of Print in Eighteenth-Century Fiction (Cambridge UP, 2011), 81.",19906,7307
"This being a beautiful day, my spirits were cheered by the mere effect of climate. I had felt a return of spleen during my stay at Armidale, and had it not been that I had Dr Johnson to contemplate, I should have sunk into dejection; but his firmness supported me. I looked at him, as a man whose head is turning giddy at sea looks at a rock, or any fixed object. I wondered at his tranquillity. He said, 'Sir, when a man retires into an island, he is to turn his thoughts intirely to another world. He has done with this.' BOSWELL. 'It appears to me, sir, to be very difficult to unite a due attention to this world, and that which is to come; for, if we engage eagerly in the affairs of life, we are apt to be totally forgetful of a future state; and, on the other hand, a steady contemplation of the awful concerns of eternity renders all objects here so insignificant, as to make us indifferent and negligent about them.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, Dr Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this subject, which should be imprinted on every mind: ""To neglect nothing to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should die within the day: nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations and duties demanded of me, less than if I had been ensured to live fifty years more.""'
(p. 245)",2013-06-26 18:54:50 UTC,"""Sir, Dr Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this subject, which should be imprinted on every mind: 'To neglect nothing to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should die within the day: nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations and duties demanded of me, less than if I had been ensured to live fifty years more.'""",2013-06-26 18:54:50 UTC,"","",,Impressions and Writing,"",C-H Lion,21153,5657