Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

A Journey from this World to the Next [from Miscellanies]

London

Printed for the Author

1743

"Besides, as I never once thought, my Mind was useless to me, and I was an absolute Stranger to all the Pleasures arising from it"

'Extravagance was now as notoriously my Vice, as Avarice had been formerly; and I spent, in a very short Life, what had cost me the Labour of a very long one to rake together. Perhaps, you will think my present Condition was more to be envied than my former: but upon my Word it was very little so; for by possessing every thing almost before I desired it, I could hardly ever say, I enjoyed my Wish: I scarce ever knew [Page 102] the Delight of satisfying a craving Appetite. Besides, as I never once thought, my Mind was useless to me, and I was an absolute Stranger to all the Pleasures arising from it. Nor, indeed, did my Education qualify me for any Delicacy in other Enjoyments; so that in the midst of Plenty I loathed every thing. Taste for Elegance, I had none; and the greatest of corporeal Blisses I felt no more from, than the lowest Animal. In a word, as while a Miser I had Plenty without daring to use it, so now I had it without Appetite.

Population::Stranger

Searching "thought" and "stranger" in HDIS (Prose)

At least 9 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1743, 1754, 1758, 1762, 1783, 1798).

See Miscellanies, by Henry Fielding, 3 vols. (London: Printed for the Author, 1743).

03/06/2006