Date: 1773
"By accustoming yourself thus to conquer and disappoint your anger, you will, by degrees, find it grow weak and manageable, so as to leave your reason at liberty."
preview | full record— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)
Date: 1773
"The same craving restless vanity will there endure a thousand mortifications, which, in the midst of seeming pleasure, will secretly corrode her heart; whilst the meek and humble generally find more gratification than they expected, and return home pleased and enlivened from every scene of amuse...
preview | full record— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)
Date: 1774
"A multitude of ideas, collected by such an imagination, form a confused chaos, in which inconsistent conceptions are often mixt, conceptions so unsuitable and disproportioned, that they can no more be combined into one regular work, than a number of wheels taken from different watches, can be un...
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"There is in the human mind a strong propensity to make excursions; which may naturally be expected to exert itself most in those who have the greatest quickness and compass of imagination."
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"Thus imagination is no unskilful architect; it collects and chuses the materials; and though they may at first lie in a rude and undigested chaos, it in a great measure, by its own force, by means of its associating power, after repeated attempts and transpositions, designs a regular and well-pr...
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"Were reason only slow in her determinations, in comparison with the quickness with which fancy conceives, like Una's dwarf, lagging behind her far away, even this would greatly impede the work of genius, retard its progress, or stop it altogether by constantly curbing the impetuosity of fancy."
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"Opposite forces in mechanics tend to destroy one another. This is analogous to the case before us. The objects strictly connected with a passion are naturally fit for introducing ideas related to themselves; the passion acts in a contrary direction, and endeavours to keep the mind from running o...
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"A strong perception, like a deep shade of colouring, seems to decay more slowly than one that is faint and delicate; and though it should decay as fast, it would be longer before it were effaced."
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"Because the impression is made quickly, it does not follow that it is strong: a susceptible memory, like a soft body, receives some impression at once, and because this impression is perceivable at once, we are at no pains to deepen it, we allow it to continue slight: when the memory is, as it ...
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1774
"Sometimes these perfections are united: the memory is of such a happy temperature as may be compared to wax, which receives the seal easily and strongly when it is melted, and immediately hardens and suffers it not to be effaced."
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)