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"Very different ideas however are excited in the minds of some, from those excited in the minds of others, even by the first of these, which may be said to be the original fountain of our knowledge, though the ideas produced by it are conveyed by organs common to human nature; and still more different ideas are excited in the minds of different persons by the other faculty, that of REFLECTION."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Author

An Essay on Original Genius

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly

Date

1767

Metaphor

"Very different ideas however are excited in the minds of some, from those excited in the minds of others, even by the first of these, which may be said to be the original fountain of our knowledge, though the ideas produced by it are conveyed by organs common to human nature; and still more different ideas are excited in the minds of different persons by the other faculty, that of REFLECTION."

Metaphor in Context

Philosophers have distinguished two general sources of our ideas, from which we draw all our knowledge, SENSATION and REFLECTION. Very different ideas however are excited in the minds of some, from those excited in the minds of others, even by the first of these, which may be said to be the original fountain of our knowledge, though the ideas produced by it are conveyed by organs common to human nature; and still more different ideas are excited in the minds of different persons by the other faculty, that of REFLECTION. Some persons indeed have few ideas except such as are derived from sensation; they seldom ruminate upon, revolve, and compare the impressions made upon their minds, unless at the time they are made, or while they are recent in their remembrance: hence they become incapable of tracing those relations and analogies which exist in nature, but which can only be traced by men of a comprehensive Imagination and penetrating Judgment. Others, endued with these qualities, are rendered thereby capable of associating and disjoining, of comparing and transforming their ideas in such a manner, as to perceive almost all their possible relations; by which means they are qualified to discover the latent truths of science, and to produce the noblest monuments of human ingenuity in the several arts. In other words, they by these means become original Geniuses in that particular art or science, to which they have received the most remarkable bias from the hand of Nature.
(pp. 87-9)