"Tempests were not alone removed from nature; but those more furious tempests were unknown to human breasts, which now cause such uproar, and engender such confusion."
— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1751, 1777
Metaphor
"Tempests were not alone removed from nature; but those more furious tempests were unknown to human breasts, which now cause such uproar, and engender such confusion."
Metaphor in Context
These conclusions are so natural and obvious, that they have not escaped even the poets, in their descriptions of the felicity, attending the golden age or the reign of Saturn. The seasons, in that first period of nature, were so temperate, if we credit these agreeable fictions, that there was no necessity for men to provide themselves with cloaths and houses, as a security against the violence of heat and cold: The rivers flowed with wine and milk: The oaks yielded honey; and nature spontaneously produced her greatest delicacies. Nor were these the chief advantages of that happy age. Tempests were not alone removed from nature; but those more furious tempests were unknown to human breasts, which now cause such uproar, and engender such confusion. Avarice, ambition, cruelty, selfishness, were never heard of: Cordial affection, compassion, sympathy, were the only movements with which the mind was yet acquainted. Even the punctilious distinction of mine and thine was banished from among that happy race of mortals, and carried with it the very notion of property and obligation, justice and injustice.
(pp. 188-9)
(pp. 188-9)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Working from Nidditch's census and confirming 3 entries through the ESTC (1751, 1753, 1760, 1764, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1772, 1777).
First published as An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. By David Hume, Esq (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1751). <Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Text from David Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals. ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge, rev. ed. P. H. Nidditch (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1975).
First published as An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. By David Hume, Esq (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1751). <Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Text from David Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals. ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge, rev. ed. P. H. Nidditch (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1975).
Date of Entry
03/05/2011
