"While I served in the militia, before and after the publication of my essay, this idea ripened in my mind; nor can I paint in more lively colours the feelings of the moment, than by transcribing some passages, under their respective dates, from a journal which I kept at that time."
— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)
Author
Work Title
Date
w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)
Metaphor
"While I served in the militia, before and after the publication of my essay, this idea ripened in my mind; nor can I paint in more lively colours the feelings of the moment, than by transcribing some passages, under their respective dates, from a journal which I kept at that time."
Metaphor in Context
After his oracle Dr. Johnson, my friend Sir Joshua Reynolds denies all original genius, any natural propensity of the mind to one art or science rather than another. Without engaging in a metaphysical or rather verbal dispute, I know, by experience, that from my early youth I aspired to the character of an historian. While I served in the militia, before and after the publication of my essay, this idea ripened in my mind; nor can I paint in more lively colours the feelings of the moment, than by transcribing some passages, under their respective dates, from a journal which I kept at that time.
(p. 126)
(p. 126)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1796).
See "Memoirs of My Life and Writings" in volume I of Miscellaneous Works: of Edward Gibbon, Esquire. With Memoirs of His Life and Writings, Composed by Himself: Illustrated from His Letters, With Occasional Notes and Narrative, by John Lord Sheffield. 2 vols. (London: Printed for A. Strahan, and T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, (successors to Mr. Cadell, 1796). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Most text drawn from Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon Ed. Oliver Farrar Emerson (London: Athenaeum Press, 1898). <Link to Google Books Edition><Link to Project Gutenberg> [text copied from PG, pagination for Google Book scan].
See "Memoirs of My Life and Writings" in volume I of Miscellaneous Works: of Edward Gibbon, Esquire. With Memoirs of His Life and Writings, Composed by Himself: Illustrated from His Letters, With Occasional Notes and Narrative, by John Lord Sheffield. 2 vols. (London: Printed for A. Strahan, and T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, (successors to Mr. Cadell, 1796). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Most text drawn from Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon Ed. Oliver Farrar Emerson (London: Athenaeum Press, 1898). <Link to Google Books Edition><Link to Project Gutenberg> [text copied from PG, pagination for Google Book scan].
Date of Entry
03/26/2011
