"And by the way, according to the all-wise appointment of Providence, it is the same with the human mind, as it is with the earth; for education and good agriculture make the like improvements upon either."
— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for W. Frederick
Date
1764
Metaphor
"And by the way, according to the all-wise appointment of Providence, it is the same with the human mind, as it is with the earth; for education and good agriculture make the like improvements upon either."
Metaphor in Context
It is therefore that Solomon recommends industry with so much vehemence to all those that cultivate the earth: For, says an ingenious author (whilst he is considering the passages alluded to in the notes, God seldom rains manna upon the slothful, or feeds them miraculously. And by the way, according to the all-wise appointment of Providence, it is the same with the human mind, as it is with the earth; for education and good agriculture make the like improvements upon either. The wild herb derives a savage nature from the soil round it. The man born in ignorant countries is uncivilized and unenlightened. Transplantation into more kindly ground improves a plant, and unwearied culture increases those improvements. Thus, likewise, it is with man. — Instructions exalt the powers of a docile mind, and industry, in teacher and learner, supplies the place of diligent cultivation in husbandry.
(pp. 36-7)
(pp. 36-7)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Jenny Davidson's Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century (New York: Columbia UP, 2009), 63.
Citation
Walter Harte, Essays on Husbandry (London: Printed for W. Frederick, 1764). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
04/24/2012
