"'Tis true, my Master did advise me (for which I'll pay and ever owe him as many Thanks as Arithmetick can count) to beg my Father's Consent before I rambled again; but my runnagate Mind being set on a galloping Frollick, he might with as much ease have found out the Quadrature of a Circle, or the Taylor's Name that works to the Man in the Moon, as have parted me from another Ramble."

— Dunton, John (1659-1732)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Richard Newcome
Date
1691
Metaphor
"'Tis true, my Master did advise me (for which I'll pay and ever owe him as many Thanks as Arithmetick can count) to beg my Father's Consent before I rambled again; but my runnagate Mind being set on a galloping Frollick, he might with as much ease have found out the Quadrature of a Circle, or the Taylor's Name that works to the Man in the Moon, as have parted me from another Ramble."
Metaphor in Context
But alas, I had not been sixty minutes Alphabetizing and sorting of Books before my old Rambling Maggot began to crawl and bite afresh; upon which I immediately grew as fickle and wavering as if I had drank Liquor distill'd from a Womans Brains; and nothing would satisfie me now till I saw the Situation of my Father's House again. 'Tis true, my Master did advise me (for which I'll pay and ever owe him as many Thanks as Arithmetick can count) to beg my Father's Consent before I rambled again; but my runnagate Mind being set on a galloping Frollick, he might with as much ease have found out the Quadrature of a Circle, or the Taylor's Name that works to the Man in the Moon, as have parted me from another Ramble; for beginning now to imagin that a Trade was troublesom, and that the toyl of keeping Accompts would be a labour too tedious for my Mercurial Brains, I was impatient till I was on another Ramble. And no sooner had the Night began to draw its Curtains, but Evander draws his.
(III, pp. 34-5)
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
John Dunton, A Voyage Round the World: or, a Pocket-Library, Divided into several Volumes. The First of which contains the Rare Adventures of Don Kainophilus, From his Cradle to his 15th. Year. The like Discoveries in such a Method never made by any Rambler before. The whole Work intermixt with Essays, Historical, Moral and Divine; and all other kinds of Learning. Done into English by a Lover of Travels. Recommended by the Wits of both Universities. 3 vols. (London: Printed for Richard Newcome, 1691). <Link to EEBO-TCP>
Date of Entry
06/19/2013

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