"Let me, therfore, most earnestly recommend to you, to hoard up, while you can, a great stock of knowledge; for though, during the dissipation of your youth, you may not have occasion to spend much of it; yet, you may depend upon it, that a time will come, when you will want it to maintain you. Public granaries are filled in plentiful years; not that it is known that the next, or the second, or the third year will prove a scarce one; but because it is known that, sooner or later, such a year will come, in which the grain will be wanted."
— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Dodsley
Date
1774
Metaphor
"Let me, therfore, most earnestly recommend to you, to hoard up, while you can, a great stock of knowledge; for though, during the dissipation of your youth, you may not have occasion to spend much of it; yet, you may depend upon it, that a time will come, when you will want it to maintain you. Public granaries are filled in plentiful years; not that it is known that the next, or the second, or the third year will prove a scarce one; but because it is known that, sooner or later, such a year will come, in which the grain will be wanted."
Metaphor in Context
Let me, therfore, most earnestly recommend to you, to hoard up, while you can, a great stock of knowledge; for though, during the dissipation of your youth, you may not have occasion to spend much of it; yet, you may depend upon it, that a time will come, when you will want it to maintain you. Public granaries are filled in plentiful years; not that it is known that the next, or the second, or the third year will prove a scarce one; but because it is known that, sooner or later, such a year will come, in which the grain will be wanted.
(I.lxxx, p. 239 [pp. 42-3 in Roberts ed.], BATH, October 4, O.S. 1746)
(I.lxxx, p. 239 [pp. 42-3 in Roberts ed.], BATH, October 4, O.S. 1746)
Provenance
Reading S. H. Clark's "Locke and Metaphor Reconsidered" in JHI 59:2 (1998) p. 253; found again
Citation
At least 32 entries in ESTC (1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1786, 1789, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1797, 1800). In 1774 fourteen letters were first published under the title The Art of Pleasing. See also Letters to his Son Philip Stanhope, 2 vols. (1774); then published in four volumes the same year. Additional letters collected in Miscellaneous Works (1777).
Reading David Roberts' edition of Lord Chesterfield's Letters (Oxford: OUP, 1998); and searching text from Project Gutenberg <Link>
Consulting and citing, where possible, Letters Written by the late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to his son, Philip Stanhope, Esq. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1774). <Link to ECCO>
See also Miscellaneous Works of the late Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield: Consisting of letters to his Friends, never before printed, and Various Other Articles. 2 vols. (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1777). <Link to ECCO>
Reading David Roberts' edition of Lord Chesterfield's Letters (Oxford: OUP, 1998); and searching text from Project Gutenberg <Link>
Consulting and citing, where possible, Letters Written by the late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to his son, Philip Stanhope, Esq. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1774). <Link to ECCO>
See also Miscellaneous Works of the late Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield: Consisting of letters to his Friends, never before printed, and Various Other Articles. 2 vols. (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1777). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
03/21/2005
