"There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are set a going by some Object in View, or be it some Object, though not in View, yet render'd present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager Embracings of the Object, that the Absence of it is insupportable."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
W. Taylor
Date
1719
Metaphor
"There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are set a going by some Object in View, or be it some Object, though not in View, yet render'd present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager Embracings of the Object, that the Absence of it is insupportable."
Metaphor in Context
There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are set a going by some Object in View, or be it some Object, though not in View, yet render'd present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager Embracings of the Object, that the Absence of it is insupportable.
(p. 222)
Provenance
HDIS (Prose)
Citation
At least 33 entries in ESTC (1719, 1720, 1722, 1726, 1742, 1744, 1747, 1753, 1761, 1766, 1767, 1772, 1778, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1797, 1799, 1800).

See Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years All Alone in an Un-Inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account How He Was at Last As Strangely Deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself (London: W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
01/13/2004

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.