"Now in filling my mind with them [ideas and facts], and in warming and animating me, you would, I doubt not, do me great good. And I am one of those substances, like sealing wax and other electric bodies, which require to be warmed in order to possess the faculty of attracting objects, of covering and clothing itself with them."
— Wilberforce, William (1759-1833)
Work Title
Date
December 27, 1823
Metaphor
"Now in filling my mind with them [ideas and facts], and in warming and animating me, you would, I doubt not, do me great good. And I am one of those substances, like sealing wax and other electric bodies, which require to be warmed in order to possess the faculty of attracting objects, of covering and clothing itself with them."
Metaphor in Context
If you lament your decayed faculties, and your present drowsihood, (as Thomson terms it,) how much more cause have I for such lamentations! I say it sincerely and seriously. Yet still what I can do I ought to do. But the complaint in my eyes is a sad hinderance to me in recovering lost ideas and facts. Now in filling my mind with them, and in warming and animating me, you would, I doubt not, do me great good. And I am one of those substances, like sealing wax and other electric bodies, which require to be warmed in order to possess the faculty of attracting objects, of covering and clothing itself with them. I cannot sparkle at all without being rubbed, and this would be effected by your conversation and speechifying. Yet I can perhaps revive the old impressions by meditation and looking at papers. Formerly I had several friends who assisted me to look out for intelligence, Burgh, Dickson, and others. Pitt used to call them my "white negroes."
(ii, p. 279)
(ii, p. 279)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
The Correspondence of William Wilberforce, eds. Robert Isaac Wilberforce and Samuel Wilberforce, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Henry Perkins, 1846).
Date of Entry
08/31/2011
