"My mind is like an air-pump which receives and ejects ideas with wonderful facility."
— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Author
Work Title
Date
w. 1764, 1953
Metaphor
"My mind is like an air-pump which receives and ejects ideas with wonderful facility."
Metaphor in Context
I then went to president Gemmingen's, where I heard music and danced and was gay. I have a weakness of mind which is scarcely credible. Here amidst music and dancing I am as cheerful as if nothing had ever vexed me. My mind is like an air-pump which receives and ejects ideas with wonderful facility. Munzesheim went home with me a little. I told him in confidence my proceedings with his sovereign as to the Order. He told me I would obtain it when I returned. I bid him speak plain. He assured me that I might depend upon having it. I supped at the Marshal's table, where I am much liked. It has been observed that the Grand Écuyer has spoken more to me than to any stranger. He is silent and backward. I have put him at his ease, led him to talk of horses, of which I am, by the by, completely ignorant. But I had address enough to make that conversation go well on.
Categories
Provenance
Reading Travel Writing: 1700-1830, eds. Elizabeth A. Bohls and Ian Duncan (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005), 23-4.
Citation
Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland, 1764, ed. Frederick Pottle (New York, 1953).
Date of Entry
10/26/2011
