"It is observed, that every thing is well remembered, which is impressed on the mind when free and disengaged."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London and Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed for W. Strahan, T.Cadell, and W. Creech
Date
1774
Metaphor
"It is observed, that every thing is well remembered, which is impressed on the mind when free and disengaged."
Metaphor in Context
It is observed, that every thing is well remembered, which is impressed on the mind when free and disengaged. This is one of the circumstances which render the morning favourable to study. On this account we retain through life, what we learn in childhood and early youth. When the mind is already occupied by one object, an effort is necessary to draw it off from that object; this effort weakens the application with which we attend to the succeeding object: the former object still attracts some part of our attention, and thus farther weakens our conception of the other. But a disengaged mind bestows its whole attention on the object that is presented to it, and conceives it with great vivacity. Thus also, a thing is well remembered, when the mind is, for some time after having perceived it, occupied by no new object: in this case there is room for continued, as well as close, attention, which strengthens the impression on the senses, and, in consequence of that, upon the memory. Pre-expectation likewise renders the remembrance of an object durable: it rouses the attention, it puts the mind in a proper disposition for bestowing attention, it invigorates our conception of the object. It is from experience of these effects of pre-expectation, that persons who wish us to be much affected with what they communicate, raise our curiosity, delay satisfying it, and render us as impatient as they can.
(II.ix, pp. 246-8)
Categories
Provenance
Reading in C-H Lion
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1774).

An Essay on Genius. By Alexander Gerard, D.D. Professor of Divinity in King's College, Aberdeen. (London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell, and W. Creech at Edinburgh 1774). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/27/2013

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