"Attend therefore with the Ears of thy Heart, and look sharply with the Eyes of thy Understanding, upon that which I shall shew thee; it may be thou may'st find so much in it, as may serve to lead thee into the right way."

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed and Sold by Edm. Powell and J. Morphew
Date
1708
Metaphor
"Attend therefore with the Ears of thy Heart, and look sharply with the Eyes of thy Understanding, upon that which I shall shew thee; it may be thou may'st find so much in it, as may serve to lead thee into the right way."
Metaphor in Context
§ 85. And now, don't expect that I should give thee a Description of that, which the Heart of Man cannot conceive. For if a great many of thole things which we do conceive are nevertheless hard to be explain'd, how much more difficult must those be which cannot be conceiv'd by the Heart, nor are circumscrib'd in the Limits of that World in which it converses. Now, when I say the Heart, I don't mean the Substance of it, nor that Spirit which is contain'd in the Cavity of it; but I mean by it, the Form of that Spirit which is diffus'd by its Faculties through the whole Body of Man. Now every one of these three is sometimes call'd the Heart, but 'tis impossible that this thing which I mean should be comprehended by any of these three, neither can we express any thing by Words, which is not first conceiv'd in the Heart. And whosoever asks to have it explain'd, asks an Impossibility; for 'tis just as if a Man should have a mind to taste Colours, quatenas Colours, and desire, that black should be either sweet or sowre. However, I shall not dismiss you without some Limits, whereby I shall point out to you in some Measure, what wonderful things he saw when in this Condition, but all figuratively, and by way of Parable; not pretending to give a literal Description of that, which is impossible to be known, but by coming thither. Attend therefore with the Ears of thy Heart, and look sharply with the Eyes of thy Understanding, upon that which I shall shew thee; it may be thou may'st find so much in it, as may serve to lead thee into the right way. But I make this Bargain, that thou shalt not at present require any further Explication of it by Word of Mouth; but rest thy self contented with what I shall commit to these Papers. For 'tis a narrow Field, and 'tis dangerous to attempt the explaining of that with Words, the Nature of which admits no Explication.
Provenance
Searching in Project Gutenberg
Citation
At least 3 entries in ESTC (1708, 1711).

Ibn Tufail (Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Tufail al-Qasi), trans. Simon Ockley, The Improvement of Human Reason Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan: Written in Arabick above 500 Years ago, by Abu Jaafr Ebn Tophail. In which is demonstrated, By what Methods one may, by meer Light of Nature, attain the Knowledg of things Natural and Supernatural; more particularly the Knowledge of God and the Affairs of another Life. Illustrated with proper Figures. Newly Translated from the Original Arabick, A.M. Vicar of Swavesey in Cambridgeshire. With an Appendix, In which the Possibility of Man's attaining the True Knowledg of God, and Things necessary to Salvation, without Instruction, is briefly consider'd. (London: Printed and Sold by Edm. Powell and J. Morphew, 1708). <Link to Google Books><Link to ECCO>

Text from Project Gutenberg edition: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16831/16831-h/20018-h.htm.
Date of Entry
06/17/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.