"In fact, behaviour in most circumstances is now so much thought of, that simplicity of character is rarely seen: yet, if men were only anxious to cultivate each virtue, and let it take root firmly in the mind, the grace resulting from it, its natural exterior mark, would soon strip affectation and flaunting plumes; because, fallacious as unstable, is the conduct that is not founded on truth!"

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Johnson
Date
1792
Metaphor
"In fact, behaviour in most circumstances is now so much thought of, that simplicity of character is rarely seen: yet, if men were only anxious to cultivate each virtue, and let it take root firmly in the mind, the grace resulting from it, its natural exterior mark, would soon strip affectation and flaunting plumes; because, fallacious as unstable, is the conduct that is not founded on truth!"
Metaphor in Context
The behaviour of young people, to each other, as men and women, is the last thing that should be thought of in education. In fact, behaviour in most circumstances is now so much thought of, that simplicity of character is rarely seen: yet, if men were only anxious to cultivate each virtue, and let it take root firmly in the mind, the grace resulting from it, its natural exterior mark, would soon strip affectation and flaunting plumes; because, fallacious as unstable, is the conduct that is not founded on truth!
(p. 130)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
7 entries in ESTC (1792, 1793, 1794, 1796).

See A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. by Mary Wollstonecraft. (London: Printed for J. Johnson, No 72, St. Paul's Church Yard, 1792). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

Reading Wollstonecraft, M. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Modern Library (New York: Random House, 2001). Also The Vindications, eds. D. L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf (Toronto: Broadview Press, 2001).

See also Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (London: J. Johnson, 1792). <Link to OLL>
Date of Entry
09/14/2009

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