"What Philosophic Builder will essay / By Rules Mechanic to unfold the way / How a Machine must be dispos'd to think, / Ideas how to frame, and how to link?"
— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for S. Buckley and J. Tonson
Date
1712
Metaphor
"What Philosophic Builder will essay / By Rules Mechanic to unfold the way / How a Machine must be dispos'd to think, / Ideas how to frame, and how to link?"
Metaphor in Context
How does this wondrous Principle of Thought
Perceive the Object by the Senses brought?
What Philosophic Builder will essay
By Rules Mechanic to unfold the way
How a Machine must be dispos'd to think,
Ideas how to frame, and how to link?
Tell us, Lucretius, Epicurus, tell,
And you in Wit unrival'd shall excel,
How thro' the outward Sense the Object flies,
How in the Soul her Images arise.
What Thinking, what Perception is, explain;
What all the airy Creatures of the Brain;
How to the Mind a Thought reflected goes,
And how the conscious Engine knows it Knows. (VII, ll. 328-341, pp. 330-1)
Perceive the Object by the Senses brought?
What Philosophic Builder will essay
By Rules Mechanic to unfold the way
How a Machine must be dispos'd to think,
Ideas how to frame, and how to link?
Tell us, Lucretius, Epicurus, tell,
And you in Wit unrival'd shall excel,
How thro' the outward Sense the Object flies,
How in the Soul her Images arise.
What Thinking, what Perception is, explain;
What all the airy Creatures of the Brain;
How to the Mind a Thought reflected goes,
And how the conscious Engine knows it Knows. (VII, ll. 328-341, pp. 330-1)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "machine" and "idea" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 8 entries in ESTC (1712, 1715, 1718, 1736, 1797).
Text from Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. Demonstrating the Existence and Providence of a God, 2nd ed. (London: S. Buckley and J. Tonson, 1712). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Other Online Editions: first edition (also published in 1712) is available <Link to ECCO>. See also 3rd edition (1715) <Link to Google Books>.
Text from Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. Demonstrating the Existence and Providence of a God, 2nd ed. (London: S. Buckley and J. Tonson, 1712). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Other Online Editions: first edition (also published in 1712) is available <Link to ECCO>. See also 3rd edition (1715) <Link to Google Books>.
Date of Entry
12/13/2006
