At a period in history the mind of man may be imagined "sunk into a profound sleep"
— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange; Printed by Richard Wilson
Date
1831
Metaphor
At a period in history the mind of man may be imagined "sunk into a profound sleep"
Metaphor in Context
It has been a vulgar error to imagine, that the mind of man, so far as relates to its active and inventive powers, was sunk into a profound sleep, from which it gradually recovered itself at the period [page 79] when Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and the books and the teachers of the ancient Greek language were dispersed through Europe. The epoch from which modern invention took its rise, commenced much earlier. The feudal system, one of the most interesting contrivances of man in society, was introduced in the ninth century; and chivalry, the offspring of that system, an institution to which we are mainly indebted for refinement of sentiment, and humane and generous demeanour, in the eleventh. Out of these grew the originality and the poetry of romance.
(pp. 78-9)
(pp. 78-9)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" at Electronic Text Center at UVA Library
Citation
Godwin, William. Thoughts on Man. London: Richard Wilson, 1831. Online edition by Charles Keller and Christine Ruotolo, UVa Electronic Text Center, 1997. <Link to UVa's Electronic Text Center>
Theme
Enlightenment
Date of Entry
08/11/2005
