"Neither birth, nor books, nor conversation, can introduce a knowledge of the world into a conceited mind, which will ever be its own object, and contemplate mankind in its own mirror!"
— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Author
Work Title
Date
1732
Metaphor
"Neither birth, nor books, nor conversation, can introduce a knowledge of the world into a conceited mind, which will ever be its own object, and contemplate mankind in its own mirror!"
Metaphor in Context
CRI.
But then one might expect from such philosophers so much good sense and philanthropy as to keep their tenets to themselves, and consider their weak brethren, who are more strongly affected by certain senses and notions of another kind, than that of the beauty of pure, disinterested virtue. Cratylus, a man prejudiced against the Christian religion, of a crazy constitution, of a rank above most men's ambition, and a fortune equal to his rank, had little capacity for sensual vices, or temptation to dishonest ones. Cratylus having talked himself, or imagined that he had talked himself; into a Stoical enthusiasm about the beauty of virtue, did, under the pretence of making men heroically virtuous, endeavour to destroy the means of making them reasonably and humanly so: a clear instance, that neither birth, nor books, nor conversation, can introduce a knowledge of the world into a conceited mind, which will ever be its own object, and contemplate mankind in its own mirror!
(p. 132)
But then one might expect from such philosophers so much good sense and philanthropy as to keep their tenets to themselves, and consider their weak brethren, who are more strongly affected by certain senses and notions of another kind, than that of the beauty of pure, disinterested virtue. Cratylus, a man prejudiced against the Christian religion, of a crazy constitution, of a rank above most men's ambition, and a fortune equal to his rank, had little capacity for sensual vices, or temptation to dishonest ones. Cratylus having talked himself, or imagined that he had talked himself; into a Stoical enthusiasm about the beauty of virtue, did, under the pretence of making men heroically virtuous, endeavour to destroy the means of making them reasonably and humanly so: a clear instance, that neither birth, nor books, nor conversation, can introduce a knowledge of the world into a conceited mind, which will ever be its own object, and contemplate mankind in its own mirror!
(p. 132)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "mirror" in Past Masters; found again in ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 9 entries in ESTC (1732, 1752, 1755, 1757, 1767).
Alciphron: or, the Minute Philosopher. In Seven Dialogues. Containing an Apology for the Christian Religion, Against Those Who Are Called Free-Thinkers. (Dublin: Printed for G. Risk, G. Ewing, and W. Smith, 1732). <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II>
See also Alciphron: or the Minute Philosopher (London: J. Tonson, 1732). <Link to Google Books>
Alciphron: or, the Minute Philosopher. In Seven Dialogues. Containing an Apology for the Christian Religion, Against Those Who Are Called Free-Thinkers. (Dublin: Printed for G. Risk, G. Ewing, and W. Smith, 1732). <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II>
See also Alciphron: or the Minute Philosopher (London: J. Tonson, 1732). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
10/05/2005
