"Babylon in Ruins is not so melancholy a Spectacle" as a distracted Person, whose "imagination is troubled" and whose "whole soul [is] disordered and confused."
— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Date
Thursday, July 3rd, 1712
Metaphor
"Babylon in Ruins is not so melancholy a Spectacle" as a distracted Person, whose "imagination is troubled" and whose "whole soul [is] disordered and confused."
Metaphor in Context
There is not a Sight in Nature so mortifying as that of a distracted Person, when his Imagination is troubled, and his whole Soul disordered and confused. Babylon in Ruins is not so melancholy a Spectacle. But to quit so disagreeable a Subject, I shall consider, by way of Conclusion, what an infinite Advantage this Faculty gives an Almighty Being over the Soul of Man, and how great a measure of Happiness or Misery we are capable of Receiving from the Imagination only.
(p. 416)
(p. 416)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele. Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator. Ed. Robert J. Allen. Second ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1970.
Date of Entry
06/01/2006
Date of Review
02/05/2011
