"Reason alone is sufficient to govern a Rational Creature; which was therefore a Character we had no Pretence to challenge"

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Benj. Motte
Date
1726
Metaphor
"Reason alone is sufficient to govern a Rational Creature; which was therefore a Character we had no Pretence to challenge"
Metaphor in Context
That our Institutions of Government and Law were plainly owing to our gross Defects in Reason, and by consequence, in Vertue; because Reason alone is sufficient to govern a Rational Creature; which was therefore a Character we had no Pretence to challenge, even from the Account I had given of my own People, although he manifestly perceived, that in order to favour them, I had concealed many Particulars, and often said the Thing which was not.
(pp. 102-3)
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Prose)
Citation
47 entries in ESTC (1726, 1727, 1731, 1738, 1742, 1743, 1747, 1748, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1760, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1770, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1780, 1782, 1787, 1792).

Travels into several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: Printed for Benj. Motte, 1726). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
04/25/2005

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