"She had learnt, that to give pain was immoral; and could no more have borne to have shocked any person's mind, than to have racked his body."

— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Newbery
Date
1762
Metaphor
"She had learnt, that to give pain was immoral; and could no more have borne to have shocked any person's mind, than to have racked his body."
Metaphor in Context
By teaching her humanity, he initiated her into civility of manners. She had learnt, that to give pain was immoral; and could no more have borne to have shocked any person's mind, than to have racked his body. Any thought therefore that could hurt she suppressed as an indispensable duty, and to please by her actions, and not offend by her words, was an essential part of the religion in which she was educated; but in every thing whereby no one could suffer, she was innocence and simplicity itself; and in her nature shone pure and uncorrupted, either by natural or acquired vices.
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Categories
Provenance
Reading and using HDIS to doublecheck search
Citation
Five entries in ESTC (1762, 1763, 1764, 1767). Second edition, corrected in 1764; third edition in 1767.

Reading Sarah Scott, A Description of Millenium Hall, ed. Gary Kelly (Ontario: Broadview Literary Texts, 2001).

See also A Description of Millenium Hall, and the Country Adjacent: Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants, And such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections, as May excite in the Reader proper Sentiments of Humanity, and lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue. By A Gentleman on his Travels (London: Printed for J. Newbery, 1762). <Link to archive.org>
Theme
Mind and Body
Date of Entry
01/25/2004

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