"The hand has no closer correspondence with the Memory than the eye"
— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Author
Work Title
Date
September 15, 1759
Metaphor
"The hand has no closer correspondence with the Memory than the eye"
Metaphor in Context
Others I have found unalterably persuaded, that nothing is certainly remembered but what is transcribed, and they have therefore therefore passed weeks and months in transferring large quotations to a common-place book. Yet, why any part of a book, which can be consulted at pleasure, should be copied, I was never able to discover. The hand has no closer correspondence with the Memory than the eye. The act of writing itself distracts the thoughts, and what is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed. This method therefore consumes time without assisting 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
