"Without this, the exercise of memory would be much more difficult than it is: for our remembering any series of thoughts, it would be necessary to impress them all vigorously on the mind; if any of them were faint, it would necessarily be forgotten."
— 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
"Without this, the exercise of memory would be much more difficult than it is: for our remembering any series of thoughts, it would be necessary to impress them all vigorously on the mind; if any of them were faint, it would necessarily be forgotten."
Metaphor in Context
The fitness which both the connexions of things retained by memory and their relations in the imagination, have for causing one bring others into our view, contributes much to the strength and perfection of remembrance. Without this, the exercise of memory would be much more difficult than it is: for our remembering any series of thoughts, it would be necessary to impress them all vigorously on the mind; if any of them were faint, it would necessarily be forgotten. But because one idea introduces others connected with it, we may sometimes remember many, by gaining a strong perception of a few: the relation of the many to the few, will be sufficient for calling them to mind, though they themselves be but weakly remembered.
(II.ix, p. 256)
(II.ix, p. 256)
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>
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
