"Standard productions of this kind are links in the chain of our conscious being. They bind together the different scattered divisions of our personal identity."
— Hazlitt, William (1778-1830)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy
Date
February, 1821
Metaphor
"Standard productions of this kind are links in the chain of our conscious being. They bind together the different scattered divisions of our personal identity."
Metaphor in Context
When I take up a work that I have read before (the oftener the better) I know what I have to expect. The satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated. When the entertainment is altogether new, I sit down to it as I should to a strange dish,--turn and pick out a bit here and there, and am in doubt what to think of the composition. There is a want of confidence and security to second appetite. New-fangled books are also like made-dishes in this respect, that they are generally little else than hashes and rifaccimentos of what has been served up entire and in a more natural state at other times. Besides, in thus turning to a well-known author, there is not only an assurance that my time will not be thrown away, or my palate nauseated with the most insipid or vilest trash,--but I shake hands with, and look an old, tried, and valued friend in the face,--compare notes, and chat the hours away. It is true, we form dear friendships with such ideal guests—dearer, alas! and more lasting, than those with our most intimate acquaintance. In reading a book which is an old favourite with me (say the first novel I ever read) I not only have the pleasure of imagination and of a critical relish of the work, but the pleasures of memory added to it. It recals the same feelings and associations which I had in first reading it, and which I can never have again in any other way. Standard productions of this kind are links in the chain of our conscious being. They bind together the different scattered divisions of our personal identity. They are land-marks and guides in our journey through life. They are pegs and loops on which we can hang up, or from which we can take down, at pleasure, the wardrobe of a moral imagination, the relics of our best affections, the tokens and records of our happiest hours. They are "for thoughts and for remembrance!" They are like Fortunatus's Wishing-Cap—they give us the best riches—those of Fancy; and transport us, not over half the globe, but (which is better) over half our lives, at a word's notice!
(pp. 65-6)
(pp. 65-6)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Text from William Hazlitt, The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things, 2 vols. (London: Henry Colburn, 1826), ii, 63-83. <Link to Google Books>
First published in The London Magazine, vol. 3, No. xiv (February 1821): 128-134. <Link to Google Books>
First published in The London Magazine, vol. 3, No. xiv (February 1821): 128-134. <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
07/24/2012
