"If the organs of perception, like wax overhardened with cold, will not receive the impression of the seal; or, like wax of a temper too soft, will not hold it."

— Locke [from Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language]


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by W. Strahan [etc.]
Date
1755
Metaphor
"If the organs of perception, like wax overhardened with cold, will not receive the impression of the seal; or, like wax of a temper too soft, will not hold it."
Metaphor in Context
If the organs of perception, like wax overhardened with cold, will not receive the impression of the seal; or, like wax of a temper too soft, will not hold it; or else supposing the wax of a temper fit, but the seal not applied with a sufficient force to make a clear impression: in any of these cases the print left by the seal will be obscure.
Provenance
Consulted Johnson's Dictionary while searching "seal" in HDIS.
Citation
Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language: In Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. To Which Are Prefixed, a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. New York,: AMS Press, 1967.
Date of Entry
04/19/2005

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