Literary notes about cognizance (AI summary)
The term "cognizance" is employed in literature with a remarkable versatility, its meaning shifting subtly depending on context. In legal and governmental writings, it denotes the formal recognition or jurisdiction over matters—authorities and courts take cognizance of offenses and affairs as part of their remit [1][2][3][4][5]. In philosophical and psychological texts, it suggests the process by which the intellect or senses apprehends phenomena, whether abstract or tangible [6][7][8][9]. Moreover, in poetic usage, the word often conveys a deep, almost emotional perception; it is used to express how one's heart or inner self becomes aware, sometimes in a metaphorical manner [10][11]. Even in heraldic descriptions or social commentary, "cognizance" signifies an acknowledgment of identity or attributes, solidifying its role as a bridge between formal authority and personal, sensory, or metaphysical awareness [12][13]. This diverse application across genres highlights the richness of the term, as writers use it to capture both the strict procedures of law and the nuanced processes of human understanding.
- The lodge can, therefore, take no cognizance of religious or political offenses.
— from The Principles of Masonic Law by Albert Gallatin Mackey - These form, altogether, the fifth of the enumerated classes of causes proper for the cognizance of the national courts.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - The third characteristic of the judicial power is its inability to act unless it is appealed to, or until it has taken cognizance of an affair.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - Let the laws take cognizance rather of the injury done to another man's property, than of that done to one's own person.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - It disregarded minor matters, but took cognizance of all judicial debates which concerned religion, the King, or the State.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob - A Sense and Understanding can no more see, or in any possible manner take cognizance of, a spiritual person than a man born blind can see the sun.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - For metaphysics, in endeavouring to solve its own peculiar problem, must employ means, the validity of which falls under the cognizance of logic.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) by John Stuart Mill - The cognizance of its powers, however, gives us no knowledge of that essence of which they are predicated.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - The subject is within the cognizance of the rational faculty; and neither does that faculty deal with it solely in the way of intuition.
— from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill - Now that your eyes are opened and you see, Your heart should take swift cognizance, and feel.
— from Bitter-Sweet: A Poem by J. G. (Josiah Gilbert) Holland - Thine eyes, ears—all thy best attributes—all that takes cognizance of natural beauty, Shall wake and fill.
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - That latter epithet he got, not from his looks or qualities, but merely from his heraldic cognizance: a Bear on his shield.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 02 by Thomas Carlyle - Bold will I be— Some goodly cognizance of Guinevere, In lieu of this rough beast upon my shield, Langued gules, and toothed with grinning savagery.'
— from Idylls of the King by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson
