"I know in descriptions of this nature the scenes are generally supposed to grow out of the author's imagination, and if they are not charming in all their parts, the reader never imputes it to the want of sun or soil, but to the barrenness of invention"
— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Author
Date
1726
Metaphor
"I know in descriptions of this nature the scenes are generally supposed to grow out of the author's imagination, and if they are not charming in all their parts, the reader never imputes it to the want of sun or soil, but to the barrenness of invention"
Metaphor in Context
Philander used every morning to take a walk in a neighbouring wood, that stood on the borders of the Thames. It was cut through by abundance of beautiful allies, which, terminating on the water, looked like so many painted views in perspective. The banks of the river and the thickness of the shades drew into them all the birds of the country, that at sun-rising filled the wood with such a variety of notes, as made the prettiest confusion imaginable. I know in descriptions of this nature the scenes are generally supposed to grow out of the author's imagination, and if they are not charming in all their parts, the reader never imputes it to the want of sun or soil, but to the barrenness of invention. It is Cicero's observation on the plane-tree that makes so flourishing a figure in one of Plato's dialogues, that it did not draw its nourishment from the fountain that ran by it and watered its roots, but from the richness of the style that describes it. For my own part, as I design only to fix the scene of the following dialogue, I shall not endeavour to give it any other ornaments than those which nature has bestowed upon it.
(pp. 112-3)
(pp. 112-3)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 9 entries in ESTC (1726, 1736, 1746, 1751, 1753, 1754).
See Dialogues Upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals: Especially in Relation to the Latin and Greek Poets. ([London?]: Printed in the Year, 1726. <Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also Miscellaneous Works, in Verse and Prose, of the Late Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; in Three Volumes. Consisting of Such As Were Never Before Printed in Twelves. With Some Account of the Life and Writings of the Author, by Mr. Tickell. (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson in the Strand, 1726). <Link to ESTC>
Reading in vol. II of The Works of Joseph Addison, ed. George Washington Greene. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1888), 1-130.
See Dialogues Upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals: Especially in Relation to the Latin and Greek Poets. ([London?]: Printed in the Year, 1726. <Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also Miscellaneous Works, in Verse and Prose, of the Late Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; in Three Volumes. Consisting of Such As Were Never Before Printed in Twelves. With Some Account of the Life and Writings of the Author, by Mr. Tickell. (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson in the Strand, 1726). <Link to ESTC>
Reading in vol. II of The Works of Joseph Addison, ed. George Washington Greene. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1888), 1-130.
Date of Entry
05/31/2005
