"So now, Belford, as thou hast said, I am a machine at last, and no free agent."
— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for S. Richardson
Date
1747-8
Metaphor
"So now, Belford, as thou hast said, I am a machine at last, and no free agent."
Metaphor in Context
"As I hope to live, I am sorry, at the present writing, that I have been such a foolish plotter, as to put it, as I fear I have done, out of my ownpower to be honest. I hate compulsion in all forms; and cannot bear, even to be compelled to be the wretch my choice has made me!--So now, Belford, as thou hast said, I am a machine at last, and no free agent.
Upon my soul, Jack, it is a very foolish thing for a man of spirit to have brought himself to such a height of iniquity, that he must proceed, and cannot help himself; and yet to be next-to certain, that his very victory will undo him.
(V, L15)
Upon my soul, Jack, it is a very foolish thing for a man of spirit to have brought himself to such a height of iniquity, that he must proceed, and cannot help himself; and yet to be next-to certain, that his very victory will undo him.
(V, L15)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "machine" in HDIS (Prose)
Citation
Published December 1747 (vols. 1-2), April 1748 (vols. 3-4), December 1748 (vols. 5-7). Over 28 entries in ESTC (1748, 1749, 1751, 1751, 1759, 1764, 1765, 1768, 1772, 1774, 1780, 1784, 1785, 1788, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1798, 1800). Passages "restored" in 3rd edition of 1751. An abridgment in 1756.
See Samuel Richardson, Clarissa. Or, the History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life, 7 vols. (London: Printed for S. Richardson, 1748). <Link to ECCO>
Some text drawn from ECCO-TCP <Link to vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Link to vol. II><Link to vol. III><Link to vol. IV><Link to vol. V><Link to vol. VI><Link to vol. VII>
Reading Samuel Richardson, Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady, ed. Angus Ross (London: Penguin Books, 1985). <Link to LION>
See Samuel Richardson, Clarissa. Or, the History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life, 7 vols. (London: Printed for S. Richardson, 1748). <Link to ECCO>
Some text drawn from ECCO-TCP <Link to vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Link to vol. II><Link to vol. III><Link to vol. IV><Link to vol. V><Link to vol. VI><Link to vol. VII>
Reading Samuel Richardson, Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady, ed. Angus Ross (London: Penguin Books, 1985). <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
03/25/2013
