"Reason, it is true, is dictator in the society of mankind; from her there ought to lie no appeal: but here we want a POPE in our philosophy, to be the infallible judge of what is, or is not reason."
— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1710, 1797
Metaphor
"Reason, it is true, is dictator in the society of mankind; from her there ought to lie no appeal: but here we want a POPE in our philosophy, to be the infallible judge of what is, or is not reason."
Metaphor in Context
The World being so full of Politicians, and so many authors having of late turned Statesmen, it behoves me to lay every thing down exceedingly plain as I go on; the subject is nice, the age abusive, the town full of observers and reviewers, who write to please and content the notions of men, who, directed by their interest and parties, differ even with themselves. Reason, it is true, is dictator in the society of mankind; from her there ought to lie no appeal: but here we want a POPE in our philosophy, to be the infallible judge of what is, or is not reason.
(pp. 7-8)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
3 entries (1710, 1797).
Daniel Defoe, An Essay Upon Public Credit: Being an Enquiry How the Public Credit Comes to Depend Upon the Change of the Ministry, or the Dissolutions of Parliaments; and Whether It Does So or No? (London: Printed for W. Baynes and J. S. Jordan, 1797). <Link to ECCO>
Daniel Defoe, An Essay Upon Public Credit: Being an Enquiry How the Public Credit Comes to Depend Upon the Change of the Ministry, or the Dissolutions of Parliaments; and Whether It Does So or No? (London: Printed for W. Baynes and J. S. Jordan, 1797). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/07/2011
