"How many fine-spun threads of reasoning would my wandering thoughts have broken; and how difficult should I have found it to arrange arguments and inferences in the cells of my brain!"
— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Cadell
Date
1790, 1794
Metaphor
"How many fine-spun threads of reasoning would my wandering thoughts have broken; and how difficult should I have found it to arrange arguments and inferences in the cells of my brain!"
Metaphor in Context
I am glad you think that a friend's having been persecuted, imprisoned, maimed, and almost murdered, under the ancient government of France, is a good excuse for loving the revolution. What, indeed, but friendship, could have led my attention from the annals of imagination to the records of politics; from the poetry to the prose of human life? In vain might Aristocrates have explained to me the rights of kings, and Democrates have descanted on the rights of the people. How many fine-spun threads of reasoning would my wandering thoughts have broken; and how difficult should I have found it to arrange arguments and inferences in the cells of my brain! But, however dull the faculties of my head, I can assure you, that when a proposition is addressed to my heart, I have some quickness of perception. I can then decide, in one moment, points upon which philosophers and legislators have differed in all ages: nor could I be more convinced of the truth of any demonstration in Euclid, than I am, that, that system of politics must be the best, by which those I love are made happy.
(Letter XXIII, p. 195; p. 140 in Broadview ed.)
(Letter XXIII, p. 195; p. 140 in Broadview ed.)
Provenance
Reading; text from Google Books
Citation
Seven entries in ESTC (1790, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1796).
See Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France, In the Summer of 1790, To a Friend in England; Containing Various Anecdotes Relative to the French Revolution; and Memoirs of Mons. and Madame De F----. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text drawn from fourth edition of 1794 <Link to Google Books>.
Reading Letters Written in France, eds. Neil Fraistat and Susan S. Lanser (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview: 2001).
See Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France, In the Summer of 1790, To a Friend in England; Containing Various Anecdotes Relative to the French Revolution; and Memoirs of Mons. and Madame De F----. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text drawn from fourth edition of 1794 <Link to Google Books>.
Reading Letters Written in France, eds. Neil Fraistat and Susan S. Lanser (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview: 2001).
Date of Entry
07/12/2013
