"Then we should refresh our fainting bodies with Food affording little Nourishment and Pleasure: That so our vain Affections, Appetites and Lusts, may gradually die; whilst the pure Mind revives, and being free from the gross Vapours arising from too much, and too fatt'ning Meats and Drinks, the Films which darken'd her Sight fall off: and she can better now discern the naked Forms of Things by her own simple Institution, than before she could through all borrow'd Spectacles and other Opticks of Book-Philosophy."
— Marana, Giovanni Paolo (1642-1693); Anonymous [William Bradshaw (fl. 1700) or Robert Midgley (1655?-1723)?]
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G. Strahan, W. Mears, S. Ballard, F. Clay, J. Hooke, B. Motte, R. Williamson, and the executors of H. Rhodes
Date
1723
Metaphor
"Then we should refresh our fainting bodies with Food affording little Nourishment and Pleasure: That so our vain Affections, Appetites and Lusts, may gradually die; whilst the pure Mind revives, and being free from the gross Vapours arising from too much, and too fatt'ning Meats and Drinks, the Films which darken'd her Sight fall off: and she can better now discern the naked Forms of Things by her own simple Institution, than before she could through all borrow'd Spectacles and other Opticks of Book-Philosophy."
Metaphor in Context
[...] Then we should refresh our fainting bodies with Food affording little Nourishment and Pleasure: That so our vain Affections, Appetites and Lusts, may gradually die; whilst the pure Mind revives, and being free from the gross Vapours arising from too much, and too fatt'ning Meats and Drinks, the Films which darken'd her Sight fall off: and she can better now discern the naked Forms of Things by her own simple Institution, than before she could through all borrow'd Spectacles and other Opticks of Book-Philosophy: also she will more easily raise her self to the Contemplation and Science of Divine Eternal Things. He therefore that in earnest will apply himself to the Study of accomplish'd Sanctity, must first by Fasting exhaust the Marrow from his Bones, the Fatness from his Flesh, the wild and rampant Spirits from his Nerves, and then he must purge the Words and Actions of his Life from Vice. When this is done, the Soul becometh a pure Tabula Rasa, and is fit for the Impressions of Celestial Virtue.
Provenance
Searching in ECCO
Citation
Based on a 30-letter Italian original, L'esploratore turco (1684), by Giovannia Paolo Marana (1642-1693), L'espion turc was published in French in 1684; The Turkish Spy, in English in 1687. Multiple entries in the ESTC. Sixth edition in 1694, 19th edition in 1718, 25th in 1753. After the success of the first volume, the work was expanded to 632 letters and published in eight volumes, attributed to various authors in 1696-97.
Text from The Eight Volumes of Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy, Who Liv'd Five and Forty Years Undiscover'd at Paris: ... Written Originally in Arabick, Translated Into Italian, from Thence Into English. 9th ed. vol. 7 of 8. (London: Printed for G. Strahan, W. Mears, S. Ballard, F. Clay, J. Hooke, B. Motte, R. Williamson, and the executors of H. Rhodes, 1730).
Text from The Eight Volumes of Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy, Who Liv'd Five and Forty Years Undiscover'd at Paris: ... Written Originally in Arabick, Translated Into Italian, from Thence Into English. 9th ed. vol. 7 of 8. (London: Printed for G. Strahan, W. Mears, S. Ballard, F. Clay, J. Hooke, B. Motte, R. Williamson, and the executors of H. Rhodes, 1730).
Date of Entry
10/11/2006
