#humanvalue

People once looked in mirrors to check themselves—now the mirror looks back with numbers. Beauty has become measurable, and measurement has become identity. Likes, comments, filters: each one a vote on who deserves to be seen. But the more we quantify beauty, the less we understand it. The human face was never meant to be a leaderboard.

Commonplace Entry 15: Anna Letitia Barbauld's Washing Day

"Ye who beneath the yoke of wedlock bend with bowed soul...no comfort, nor pleasant smile, no quaint device, but silent breakfast anxious looks... Saints have been calm upon the rack" (51).

Barbauld's "Washing Day" is as much of an expose of the torturous nature of women's household chores in the 17th century as much as the institution of marriage that requires it of them. She compares marriage to the yoke that oxen (domesticated labor animals) carry. The tragedy is made yet more apparent in contrast to the men who are in "silken balloons" sporting around. Meanwhile the women carry the load for two and more. The "evil day" that is laundry day is akin to a torture sentence. To Barbauld, even saints or martyrs "upon the rack" are more comfortable than the women on washing day.

On Being Cautioned Against Walking Headland Overlooking the Sea Because it Was Frequented by a Lunatic

"I see him more with envy, than with fear...he has no nice felicities that shrink... He seems uncursed not to know the depth or duration of his woe" (58).

Charlotte Smith's sonnet speaks to the philosophical and cultural prisons that society places on people such as those with abundant assets, properties, homes and the things that fill them. The wealthy have many privileges, but they are also responsible for so much they may experience little freedom. Even more notable in this poem is the prison of the mind referencing those who have knowledge of our condition, or the ills of individual and society. It would seem humanity is nearly made wearier and more miserable with the advancement of knowledge.

Commonplace Entry 11: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Part 1

Said Shelley's protagonist Victor Frankenstein of his creative process, "No one can conceive the variety of feeling which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds which I should first break through and pour a torrent of light on a dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source. Many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me" (42).

V. Frankenstein set about as a student of science with the intention of a healer/physician to explore the boundaries of life after death. The loss of his mother had made the experience of death and grief personal. Initially empathy and intellectual curiosity drove his pursuits, though his endeavors were eventually misguided.

Commonplace Entry 10: John Keat's Lamia

Wrote Keats in Part 1, "She was gordian shape of dazzling hue, Vermillion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard, Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd... her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet! She had a woman's mouth with its pearls complete...Her throat was serpent, but the words she spake came, as through bubbling honey for Love's sake" (986-986).

Author and poet John Keats addressed his Romantic Period audience aptly with the inclusion of a half-human half-beast Lamia poem in his writings. Through Hermes perspective, Keats points to themes of seduction (by women) and the broader English exploration of the natural world that was a hallmark of the era. Zebras being from Africa and peacocks from Burma, these animal's inclusion may seem a surprise to the modern reader. While the snake was somewhat known to the English at this time, this particular Lamia-snake creature is a monstrosity and a beauty as partial woman. It contains elements and characteristics of both familiar and mysterious exotic animals. This passage may speak to skepticism of English explorations abroad, provide a cultural warning against the expansion of too much knowledge too swiftly, or be a nod to the role women play in society.

7 Principles outlined by 18th Century Poet William Blake helped define his philosophy that all religions have premise in the same root of origination. "Principle 2nd" states, "As all men are alike in outward form, So (and with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic Genius" (126).

According to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Romantic Period, Blake was both against Natural Deism and Christian Orthodoxy (125). Using language and style relative to both schools of thought, Blake set about to create a new argument. He believed all people possessed the same creative spark of Genius, derived from Roman ideology. And because of this belief in imaginative spark, he argued that all people have some intrinsic value and potential.

Blake, William. All Religions Are One: The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 10th Edition, Volume D, The Romantic Period, New York, London, W.W. Norton Company, 2018, pp. 125-126.

Said Locke in his philosophical quest of an essay to understand humanity, "I know there are not enough words in any language to answer all the variety of ideas that enter into men's discourses and reasonings" (109).

Locke is confident there is no limit to the gaining of new knowledge in the world of the English. Thanks to the advancements of technology, science, and engineering in that world and outside of it, Locke recognizes the culture of England embracing values that prize the acquisition of knowledge. He represents the broader trend towards better human understanding, while also standing to critique the institutions that claim that to have "clear and distinct" ideas. Modern philosophers are also at odds with this theme in an Internet Era of accessible information, in deciphering what is true and what is not.