"Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence."
— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. and J. Dodsley; and W. Johnston
Date
1759
Metaphor
"Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence."
Metaphor in Context
"Of the various conditions which the world spreads before you, which you shall prefer, said the sage, I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expence of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestick tenderness. If I have obtained any prerogatives above other students, they have been accompanied with fear, disquiet, and scrupulosity; but even of these prerogatives, whatever they were, I have, since my thoughts have been diversified by more intercourse with the world, begun to question the reality. When I have been for a few days lost in pleasing dissipation, I am always tempted to think that my enquiries have ended in errour, and that I have suffered much, and suffered it in vain."
Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence.
Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 37 entries in the ESTC (1759, 1760, 1766, 1768, 1775, 1777, 1783, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799, 1800).
See The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley; and W. Johnston, 1759). <Link to ESTC> <Link to Jack Lynch's online edition>
Reading The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, ed. Thomas Keymer (Oxford: OUP, 2009).
See The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley; and W. Johnston, 1759). <Link to ESTC> <Link to Jack Lynch's online edition>
Reading The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, ed. Thomas Keymer (Oxford: OUP, 2009).
Date of Entry
01/22/2013
