Frances Bolton wrote: "What's up with this "oh but is it good for the left?" litmus test, anyway?"
[*Identity* (OED 2d ed.), cont.]
...called proportionalitie.>1603. HOLLAND *Plutarch's Mor.* 65 That the soule of this universall world, is not simple, uniforme and uncompounded, but mixed...of a certaine power of Identitie and of Diversity. 1654 Z. Coke *Logick* (1657) 88 Causall Identity is of them which agree in the causes. *Ibid.*, Accidentall Identity is of them that agree in Accidents. 1669 GALE *Crt. Gentiles I. I. iii. 21 That the Phenicians originally Canaanites, is manifest from the Identitie of their Languages. 1721 HARRIS *Hermes* Wks (1841) 233 Is it not marvellous, there should be so exact an identity of our ideas? 1839 MURCHISON *Silur. Syst* I. xxxv. 474 The organic remains are of great interest in establishing the geological identity between the coal measures of the Dudley district and those of distant parts of Great Britain. 1855 H. SPENCER *Princ. Psychol.* (1872) II. vi. vi. 59 Resemblance when it exists in the highest degree of all..is often called identity. 1863 FAWCETT *Pol. Econ* II. ix. 265 There is no identity of interests between the employers and employed. 1876 TAIT *Rec. Adv. Phys. Sc* viii (ed. 2) 203 The identity of radiant light and heat. 1879 FROUDE *Caesar* xviii. 298 United..by identity of conviction.
b. with *an* and *pl*. An instance of this quality.
1664 H. MORE *Myst. Iniq.* How fully assured must we needs be of these Identities, the Agreements of these two Parallelisms. 1775 HARRIS *Philos. Arrangem*. Wks. (1841)309 It is by a contrary power of composition that we recognise their identities. 1861 WRIGHT *Ess. Archaeol*. I. vi. 91 The taking of resemblances of words for identities is one of the great stumbling-blocks of the philologist.
c. Recurrence of the same; repetition. *Obs.*
1611 BIBLE *Transl. Pref*. 11 Wee haue not tyed our selues to an vniformitie of phrasing; or to an identitie of words a1619 FOTHERBY *Atheom*. II. xi &6 (1622) 325 The soule is delighted with variety. It is dulled with identity.
2.a. The sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances; the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else; individuality, personality.
*personal identity* (in *Psychology*), the condition or fact of remaining the same person throughout the various phases of existence; continuity of the personality.
1638 RAWLEY tr. *Bacon's Life & Death #5 The Duration of Bodies is Twofold: One in Identity, or the selfe-same substance; the other by a Renovation or Reparation. 1690 LOCKE *Hum. Und.* II. xxvii. #6 The Identity of the same Man consists..in nothing but a participation of the same succession vitally united to the same organized Body. *Ibid.* #9 Consciousness always accompanies thinking..in this alone consists personal Identity, i.e., the Sameness of a rational Being. 1739 HUME *Hum. Nat. I. v (1874) I. 323 Of all relations the most universal is that of identity, being common to every being whose existence has any duration. 1820 W. IRVING *Sketch Bk.* I. 85 He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man. 1832 G. DOWNES *Let. Cont. Countries* I. 469 The fair city almost forfeits its identity, when disguised in a misty and murky atmosphere. 1885 'E. GARRETT' *At Any Cost* v 89 Tom..had such a curious feeling of having lost his identity, that he wanted to reassure himself by the sight of his little belongings.
b. Personal or individual existence. *rare*. ?*Obs.*
1683 DRYDEN *Life Plutarch* 31 [Plutarch] doubtless believ'd the identity of one supream intellectual being which we call God. 1824 BYRON *Juan* xvi. cxx, How odd, a single hobgoblin's non-entity Should cause more fear than a whole host's identity.
3. 'The self-same thing.' *Obs*. *rare*. <to be cont>
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In the proportion that credulity is a more peaceful possession of the mind than curiosity; so far preferable is that wisdom, which converses about the surface, to that pretended philosophy which enters into the depth of things, and then comes gravely back with informations and discoveries, that in the inside they are good for nothing. The two senses, to which all objects first are address themselves, are the sight and the touch; these never examine further than the colour, the size, and whatever other qualities dwell, or are drawn by art upon the outward of bodies; and then comes reason officiously with tools for cutting, and opening, and mangling, and piercing, offering to demonstrate, that they are not of the same consistence quite through. Now, I take all this to be the last degree of perverting nature; one of whose eternal laws it is, to put her best furniture forward. And therefore, in order to save the charges of all such expensive anatomy for the time to come, I do here think fit to inform the reader, that in such conclusions as these, reason is certainly in the right, and that in most corporeal beings, which have fallen under my cognizance, the outside hath been infinitely preferable to the in; whereof I have been farther convinced from some late experiments. Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse. Yesterday I ordered the carcass of a beau to be stripped in my presence, when we wer all amazed to find so many unsuspected faults under one suit of clothes. Then I laid open his brain, his heart, and his spleen; but I plainly perceived at every operation, that the farther we proceeded, we found the defects increse upon us in number and bulk; from all which, I justly formed this conclusion to myself; that whatever philosopher or projector can find out an art to sodder and patch up the flaws and imperfections of nature, will deserve much better of mankind, and teach us a more useful science, than that so much in present esteem, of widening and exposing them (like him who held anatomy to be the ultimate end of physic). And he, whose fortunes and dispositions have placed him in a convenient station to enjoy the fruits of this noble art; he that can with Epicurus content his ideas with the films and images that fly off upon his senses from the superficies of things; such a man truly wise, creams off nature, leaving the sour and the dregs for philosophy and reason to lap up. This is the sublime and refined point of felicity, called, the possession of being well deceived; the serene peaceful state of being a fool among knaves.
Jonathan Swift, *Tale of a Tub*, A Digression Concerning
Madness
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Clearer than shades, in hill road Springing in cleft of rock: Phaethusa There as she came among them, Wine in the smoke-faint throat, Fire gleam under smoke of the mountain, Even there by meadows of Phlegathon And against this the flute: pone metum. Fading, that they carried their guts before them, And thought then, the deathless, Form, forms and renewal, gods held in the air, Forms seen, and then clearness, Bright void, without image, Napishtim, Casting his gods back into the *nous*.
"as the sculptor sees the form in the air... "as glass seen under water, "King Otreus, my father... and saw the waves taking form as crystal, notes as facets of air, and the mind there, before them, moving, so that notes needed not move.
...side toward the piazza, the worst side of the room that no one has been willing to tackle, and do it as cheap or much cheaper...
(signed) Tician, 31 May 1513
Canto XXV
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But unlike the authors of Daniel or 1 Maccabees, the gospel writers chose to *dissociate* themselves from the Jewish majority and to focus instead upon intra-Jewish conflict -- specifically upon their own quarrel with those who resisted their claims that Jesus was the Messiah. Within the gospels, as we shall see, the figure of Satan tends to express this dramatic shift of blame from "the nations" -- *ha goyim*, in Hebrew -- onto members of Jesus' own people. The variation in each gospel as it depicts the activity of the demonic opposition -- that is, those perceived as enemies -- expresses, I believe, a variety of relationships, often deeply ambivalent, between various groups of Jesus' followers and the specific Jewish groups each writer regards as his primary opponents.
Elaine Pagels, *The Origin of Satan* (New York, 1995), p. 15
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Who will, may hear Sordello's story told: His story? Who believes me shall behold The man, pursue his fortunes to the end, Like me: for as the friendless people's friend Spied from his hill-top once, despite the din And dust of multitudes, Pentalopin Named o' the Naked Arm, I single out Sordello, compassed murkily about With ravage of six long sad hundred years. Only believe me. Ye believe?
Appears Verona . . . .
Robt. Browning, *Sordello* I, 1-11
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Each epoch has produced its treatise intended for the formation of the *polite man*, the man *of the world*, the *courtier*, when men only lived for courts, and the accomplished *gentleman*. In these various tretises on knowledge of life and politeness, if opend after a lapes of ages, we at once see portions which are as antiquated as the cut and fashion of our forefathers' coats; the *model* has evidently changed. But looking into it carefully as a whole. . . .
C.A. Sainte-Beuve, Critical Essay, *Letters, Sentences and Maxims*
by Lord Chesterfield (New York: A. L. Burt Company, n.d.),
p. 41 (The Home Library)
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A Noble Structure
In the year eighteen seventy-six,
A Fourth of July celebration
Was held in Grand Rapids city
In honor of our nation.
The largest city in the county of Kent
Is this city, and it is respected,
For thousands of people was here to see
The beautiful arch erected.
The paintings and mottoes on the arch
Was viewed by many people;
It was Colonel Joseph Penney's design,
And his work could not be equalled. . . .
Julia Moore [The Sweet Singer of Michigan]
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Thou treacherous, base, deserter of my flame, False to my passion, fatal to my *Fame*; By what mistaken *Magick* dost thou prove, So trew to lewdness, so untrue to Love? What *Oyster*, *Cinder*, *Beggar*, common *Whore*, Didst thou e're fail in all thy Life before? When *Vice*, *Disease* and *Scandal* lead the way, With what officious hast dost thou obey? Like a Rude roaring *Hector*, in the *Streets*, That Scuffles, Cuffs, and Ruffles all he meets: But if his *King*, or *Country*, claim his Aid, The *Rascal Villain*, shrinks, and hides his head: Ev'n so thy *Brutal Valor*, is displaid, Breaks ev'ry *Stews*, does each small *Whore invade*, But if great *Love*, the onset does command, Base Recreant, to thy *Prince*, thou darst not stand. Worst part of me, and henceforth hated most, Through all the *Town*, the common *Fucking Post*; On whom each *Whore*, relieves her tingling *Cunt*, As *Hogs*, on *Goats* do rub themselves and grunt. May'st thou Piss, who didst refuse to spend, When all my joys, did on false thee depend. And may *Ten thousand* abler *Pricks* agree, To do the wrong'd *Corinna*, right for thee.
Earl of Rochester, "The Imperfect Enjoyment," 46-72
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Accept, thou shrine of my dead saint,
Instead of dirges, this complaint;
And for sweet flowers to crown thy hearse,
Receive a strew of weeping verse
>From thy grieved friend, whom thou might'st see
Quite melted into tears for thee.
............................
Thou like the van first tookst the field,
And gotten hath the victory
In thus adventuring to die
Before me, whose more years might crave
A just precedence in the grave.
But hark! my pulse like a soft drum
Beats my approach, tells thee I come;
And slow howe'er my marches be,
I shall at last sit down by thee.
Henry King, "The exequy," 1-6, 106-14
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Your Focus section feature on Feb. 7 ("Body and Soul") caught my attention when I opened the Sunday Pantagraph this past weekend. My immediate reaction was "Great!", an article covering veteran local musicians! I was disappointed to discover that it was only a brief, one-page, 10-minute read.
I'm sure these men could fill an entire section with tales of times past when...
Bloomington Pantagraph, Feb. 12, 1999, A14. Letter by Russ Manuel of Hudson