"From the arietation and motion of the spirits in those canals proceed all the different sorts of thought."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744); Arbuthnot, John (bap. 1677, d. 1735)
Place of Publication
Dublin
Publisher
Printed by and for George Faulkner
Date
1741
Metaphor
"From the arietation and motion of the spirits in those canals proceed all the different sorts of thought."
Metaphor in Context
We proceed now to explain, by the structure of the brain, the several modes of thinking. It is well known to anatomists that the brain is a congeries of glands that separate the finer parts of the blood, called animal spirits; that a gland is nothing but a canal of a greater length, variously intorted and wound up together. From the arietation and motion of the spirits in those canals proceed all the different sorts of thought. Simple ideas are produced by the motion of the spirits in one simple canal. When two of these canals disembogue themselves into one, they make what we call a proposition; and when two of these propositional channels empty themselves into a third, they form a syllogism, or a ratiocination.
Memory is performed in a distinct apartment of the brain, made up of vessels similar, and like situated to the ideal, propositional and syllogistical vessels, in the primary part of the brain. After the same manner it is easy to explain the other modes of thinking; as also why some people think so wrong and perversely, which proceeds from the bad configuration of those glands. Some, for example, are born without the propositional or syllogistical canals; in others that reason ill, they are of unequal capacities; in dull fellows, of too great a length, whereby the motion of the spirits is retarded; in trifling geniuses weak and small; in the over-refining spirits, too much intorted and winding; and so of the rest.
We are so much persuaded of the truth of this our hypothesis that we have employed one of our members, a great virtuoso at Nuremberg, to make a sort of an hydraulic engine, in which a chemical liquor resembling blood is driven through elastic channels resembling arteries and veins by the force of an embolus like the heart, and wrought by a pneumatic machine of the nature of the lungs, with ropes and pullies, like the nerves, tendons and muscles. And we are persuaded that this our artificial man will not only walk and speak, and perform most of the outward actions of animal life, but (being wound up once a week) will perhaps reason as well as most of your country parsons.
(XII, pp. 63-4)
Memory is performed in a distinct apartment of the brain, made up of vessels similar, and like situated to the ideal, propositional and syllogistical vessels, in the primary part of the brain. After the same manner it is easy to explain the other modes of thinking; as also why some people think so wrong and perversely, which proceeds from the bad configuration of those glands. Some, for example, are born without the propositional or syllogistical canals; in others that reason ill, they are of unequal capacities; in dull fellows, of too great a length, whereby the motion of the spirits is retarded; in trifling geniuses weak and small; in the over-refining spirits, too much intorted and winding; and so of the rest.
We are so much persuaded of the truth of this our hypothesis that we have employed one of our members, a great virtuoso at Nuremberg, to make a sort of an hydraulic engine, in which a chemical liquor resembling blood is driven through elastic channels resembling arteries and veins by the force of an embolus like the heart, and wrought by a pneumatic machine of the nature of the lungs, with ropes and pullies, like the nerves, tendons and muscles. And we are persuaded that this our artificial man will not only walk and speak, and perform most of the outward actions of animal life, but (being wound up once a week) will perhaps reason as well as most of your country parsons.
(XII, pp. 63-4)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 16 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1741, 1742, 1752, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1761, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1772, 1774, 1778, 1779, 1789). Republished in the Works of Pope and of Swift.
See Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus. By Mr. Pope (Dublin: Printed by and for George Faulkner, 1741). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Reading Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus (London: Hesperus Press, 2002). [From which much of my text was originally transcribed.]
See Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus. By Mr. Pope (Dublin: Printed by and for George Faulkner, 1741). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Reading Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus (London: Hesperus Press, 2002). [From which much of my text was originally transcribed.]
Theme
Materialism
Date of Entry
05/18/2004
Date of Review
04/26/2011
