"Let me consult my own passions and inclinations. In them must I read the dictates of nature; not in your frivolous discourses."
— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Author
Work Title
Date
1742, 1777
Metaphor
"Let me consult my own passions and inclinations. In them must I read the dictates of nature; not in your frivolous discourses."
Metaphor in Context
Keep me, therefore, no longer in this violent constraint. Confine me not within myself; but point out to me those objects and pleasures, which afford the chief enjoyment. But why do I apply to you, proud and ignorant sages, to shew me the road to happiness? Let me consult my own passions and inclinations. In them must I read the dictates of nature; not in your frivolous discourses.
(p. 141)
(p. 141)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 15 entries in ESTC (1742, 1748, 1753, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1764, 1768, 1770, 1777, 1779, 1780, 1784, 1793, 1800).
First published in Essays, Moral and Political. Volume II. (Edinburgh: Printed for A. Kincaid, near the Cross, by R. Fleming and A. Alison, 1742). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Past Masters and Online Library of Liberty. Reading Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, rev. ed. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987). The Liberty Fund editor, Eugene F. Miller, takes the 1777 edition of Hume's essays as his copy text.
First published in Essays, Moral and Political. Volume II. (Edinburgh: Printed for A. Kincaid, near the Cross, by R. Fleming and A. Alison, 1742). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Past Masters and Online Library of Liberty. Reading Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, rev. ed. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987). The Liberty Fund editor, Eugene F. Miller, takes the 1777 edition of Hume's essays as his copy text.
Date of Entry
11/11/2005
