"I have heard it more than once observed of fortunate adventurers--they have come home enriched in purse--but wretchedly barren in intellects--the mind, my dear Jack, wants food--as well as the stomach--why then should not one wish to increase in knowledge as well as money?"
— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Nichols
Date
1782
Metaphor
"I have heard it more than once observed of fortunate adventurers--they have come home enriched in purse--but wretchedly barren in intellects--the mind, my dear Jack, wants food--as well as the stomach--why then should not one wish to increase in knowledge as well as money?"
Metaphor in Context
It is with sincere pleasure I hear you have a lucrative establishment--which will enable you to appear and act with decency--your good sense will naturally lead you to proper oeconomy--as distant from frigid parsimony, as from a heedless extravagancy--but as you may possibly have some time to spare upon your hands for necessary recreation--give me leave to obtrude my poor advice.--I have heard it more than once observed of fortunate adventurers--they have come home enriched in purse--but wretchedly barren in intellects--the mind, my dear Jack, wants food--as well as the stomach--why then should not one wish to increase in knowledge as well as money?--Young says--"Books are fair Virtue's advocates, and friends"--now my advice is--to preserve about 20 l. a year for two or three seasons--by which means you may gradually form a useful, elegant, little library--suppose now the first year you send the order--and the money to your father--for the following books--which I recommend from my own superficial knowledge as useful.--A man should know a little of Geography--History, nothing more useful, or pleasant.
(II.i, pp. 7-8; pp. 132-3 in Carretta)
(II.i, pp. 7-8; pp. 132-3 in Carretta)
Provenance
Reading; text from DocSouth
Citation
Five entries in ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784). [Second edition in 1783, third in 1784.]
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
Date of Entry
07/11/2013
