"It is as impossible as needless, to set down the innumerable Crowd of Thoughts that whirl'd through that great Thorowfair of the Brain, the Memory, in this Night's Time."
— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
W. Taylor
Date
1719
Metaphor
"It is as impossible as needless, to set down the innumerable Crowd of Thoughts that whirl'd through that great Thorowfair of the Brain, the Memory, in this Night's Time."
Metaphor in Context
It is as impossible as needless, to set down the innumerable Crowd of Thoughts that whirl'd through that great Thorowfair of the Brain, the Memory, in this Night's Time: I run over the whole History of my Life in Miniature, or by Abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this Island; and also of the Part of my Life since I came to this Island. In my Reflections upon the State of my Case, since I came on Shore on this Island, I was comparing the happy Posture of my Affairs in the first Years of my Habitation here, compar'd to the Life of Anxiety, Fear, and Care, which I had liv'd in ever since I had seen the Print of a Foot in the Sand; not that I did not believe the Savages had frequented the Island even all the while, and might have been several Hundreds of them at times on Shore there; but I had never known it, and was incapable of any Apprehensions about it; my Satisfaction was perfect, tho' my Danger was the same; and I was as happy in not knowing my Danger, as if I had never really been expos'd to it. This furnish'd my Thoughts with many very profitable Reflections, and particularly this one, How infinitely good that Providence is, which has provided in its Government of Mankind such narrow Bounds to his Sight and Knowledge of Things; and tho' he walks in the Midst of so many thousand Dangers, the Sight of which, if discover'd to him, would distract his Mind, and sink his Spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by having the Events of Things hid from his Eyes, and knowing nothing of the Dangers which surround him.
(p. 232)
(p. 232)
Categories
Provenance
Found again "thought" and "crowd" in HDIS (Prose); found again "brain"
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>
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
01/14/2004
