"When actual thought is suspended, there may remain some secret power of thinking resulting from the constitution of the soul, which will exert itself when the obstruction is removed. As a bow when bent has a disposition to straiten itself again, or a clock to strike, though the hammer be held back."

— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by assignment from the author's widow, for J. Buckland, J. Rivington, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes, W. Clarke and R. Collins, W. Johnston, J. Richardson, S. Crowder and Co. T. Longman, B. Law, T. Field, and H. Payne and W. Cropley
Date
1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
Metaphor
"When actual thought is suspended, there may remain some secret power of thinking resulting from the constitution of the soul, which will exert itself when the obstruction is removed. As a bow when bent has a disposition to straiten itself again, or a clock to strike, though the hammer be held back."
Metaphor in Context
To this it is replied, that such a definition of the soul, as implies continual actual thought, is begging the question in dispute. When actual thought is suspended, there may remain some secret power of thinking resulting from the constitution of the soul, which will exert itself when the obstruction is removed. As a bow when bent has a disposition to straiten itself again, or a clock to strike, though the hammer be held back.
(Part I, Proposition XII, Scholium II, Section I, p. 36)
Provenance
Reading in Google Books
Citation
4 entries in ESTC (1763, 1776, 1794, 1799).

First published as A Course of Lectures on the Principal subjects in Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity: with References to the Most Considerable Authors on Each Subject. By the late Reverend Philip Doddridge, D.D. (London: J. Buckland, J. Rivington, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes, W. Clarke and R. Collins, W. Johnston, J. Richardson, S. Crowder and Co. T. Longman, B. Law, T. Field, and H. Payne and W. Cropley, 1763). <Link to ECCO>

Text drawn from Philip Doddridge, A Course of Lectures on the Principal Subjects in Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity, Ed. Andrew Kippis, vol i (London: Printed for S. Crowder, T. Longman, B. Law and Son, G.G. and J. Robinson, etc., 1794). <Link to Google Books><Link to ECCO>

S. Clark's edition of 1763 was reprinted in 1776. The Kippis edition of 1794 was reprinted in 1799.
Date of Entry
09/15/2011

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.