10 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2016
  2. www.victorianweb.org www.victorianweb.org
    Thomas Carlyle's "Signs of the Times"
    10
    1. Lindsay_M 24 Nov 2016
      The Fifth-monarchy men

      The last of the five great empires referred to in the prophecy of Daniel (Dan. ii. 44), in the 17th c. identified with the millennial reign of Christ predicted in the apocalypse. Also attrib., esp. in Fifth-monarchy man n. one of those in 17th c. who believed that the Second Coming of Christ was immediately at hand, and that it was the duty of Christians to be prepared to assist in establishing his reign by force, and in the meantime to repudiate all allegiance to any other government. 1655 Severall Proc. State-affaires No. 280. 4446 The sole power was in the Presbyterians, they would force all to their way, and they (the fifth Monarchy-men) would do the like. 1677 Duke of Lauderdale in O. Airy Lauderdale Papers (1885) III. lvii. 89 How soone they [the disaffected in W. Scotland] may take armes no man can tell; for..they are perfitely fifth monarchye men. a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1657 (1955) III. 196 Desperat Zealots, cald the fift Monarchy-men. 1702 S. Sewall Diary 31 Jan. (1973) I. 461 William Parsons of 88 years, is buried. Was in the fifth-monarchy fray in London: but slipt away in the Crowd. a1732 E. Calamy Life (1830) I. i. 76 He [Calamy's schoolmaster] was a sort of Fifth Monarchy man.

      http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/view/Entry/70008?redirectedFrom=fifth+monarchy#eid

      #2016EL2Gp17
    2. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      This deep, paralysed subjection to physical objects comes not from Nature, but from our own unwise mode of viewing Nature.

      A prevailing theme this semester - perception. How man understands himself, his situation, and the world around him impacts on his belief in his own efficacy.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    3. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      Self-denial, the parent of all virtue, in any true sense of that word, has perhaps seldom been rarer: so rare is it, that the most, even in their abstract speculations, regard its existence as a chimera.

      It is clear here that we are complicit in our deterioration of our moral condition. Secularisation has resulted in morality becoming a concern for external controls rather than internal ones.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    4. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall'-which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.

      Poetry is more than the sum of its parts. Those who seek to construct poetic verse in this way lose the nuanced meaning and, instead, focus on the knowable elements of form and technique; missing the inspirational elements of genius.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    6. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      Intellect, the power man has of knowing and believing, is now nearly synonymous with Logic, or the mere power of arranging and communicating. Its implement is not Meditation, but Argument.

      There is a clear distinction between intellect and logic. There is the inference that the later is an aggressive, forceful act of imposing understanding that is 'right' rather than thought that encompasses the views of others. A singular, narrow focussed, and unyielding process of thought.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    7. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      The infinite, absolute character of Virtue has passed into a finite, conditional one; it is no longer a worship of the Beautiful and Good; but a calculation of the Profitable.

      The economy of industrial Britain has led to commodification that has cheapened man's appreciation of the sublime and morality is only pursued if it serves an individual's selfish goal.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    8. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      a secure, universal, straightforward business, to be conducted in the gross, by proper mechanism, with such intellect as comes to hand.

      Carlyle highlights that mass education can be reduced to means and end goals mediated by an ill conceived bureaucratic 'mechanism'.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    9. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      In defect of Raphaels, and Angelos, and Mozarts, we have Royal Academies of Painting, Sculpture, Music; whereby the languishing spirits of Art may be strengthened, as by the more generous diet of a Public Kitchen.

      Here Carlyle bemoans the institutionalizing of imaginative art that had come under the rule of mass-production that was adverse to individual genius.

      #2016EL2Gp17
    10. Lindsay_M 23 Nov 2016
      Literature, too, has its Paternoster-row mechanism, its Trade-dinners, its Editorial conclaves, and huge subterranean, puffing bellows; so that books are not only printed, but, in a great measure, written and sold, by machinery. National culture, spiritual benefit of all sorts, is under the same management.

      There is a clear distinction between literature and mere products of print. This is critique of the commodification of aspects of society that are being eroded by the industrialisation of Britain.

      #2016EL2Gp17
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