"In the mythological pedigree of Learning, Memory is made the mother of the Muses by which the masters of ancient Wisdom, perhaps, meant to shew the necessity of storing the mind copiously with true notions, before the imagination should be suffered to form fictions or collect embellishments; for the works of an ignorant Poet can afford nothing higher than pleasing sound, and fiction is of no other use than to display the treasures of Memory."
— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Author
Work Title
Date
September 15, 1759
Metaphor
"In the mythological pedigree of Learning, Memory is made the mother of the Muses by which the masters of ancient Wisdom, perhaps, meant to shew the necessity of storing the mind copiously with true notions, before the imagination should be suffered to form fictions or collect embellishments; for the works of an ignorant Poet can afford nothing higher than pleasing sound, and fiction is of no other use than to display the treasures of Memory."
Metaphor in Context
In the mythological pedigree of Learning, Memory is made the mother of the Muses by which the masters of ancient Wisdom, perhaps, meant to shew the necessity of storing the mind copiously with true notions, before the imagination should be suffered to form fictions or collect embellishments; for the works of an ignorant Poet can afford nothing higher than pleasing sound, and fiction is of no other use than to display the treasures of Memory.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Samuel Johnson, The Idler: In Two Volumes (London: J. Newbury, 1761), 119-123. <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
05/23/2011
