"I say, our Author maintains that Moral Virtue is so far from allowing a Man to gratify his Appetites, that on the contrary it vigorously commands us to subdue them, and to divest ourselves of our Passions, in order to purify the Mind, as Men take out the Furniture when they would clean a Room thoroughly."

— Campbell, Archibald (1691-1756)


Place of Publication
Westminster
Publisher
Printed by J. Cluer and A. Campbell
Date
1728 (1733)
Metaphor
"I say, our Author maintains that Moral Virtue is so far from allowing a Man to gratify his Appetites, that on the contrary it vigorously commands us to subdue them, and to divest ourselves of our Passions, in order to purify the Mind, as Men take out the Furniture when they would clean a Room thoroughly."
Metaphor in Context
I say, our Author maintains that Moral Virtue is so far from allowing a Man to gratify his Appetites, that on the contrary it vigorously commands us to subdue them, and to divest ourselves of our Passions, in order to purify the Mind, as Men take out the Furniture when they would clean a Room thoroughly: For, according to him, Virtue consists wholly in Self-Denial: By which he understands Peoples combating themselves, and undergoing all imaginable Austerities, even refusing what one should think absolutely necessary to keep them alive. I am willing " says he, to pag Adoration to Virtue wherever, I can meet with it, with a proviso that I shall not be oblig'd to admit any as such, where I can see no Self-Denial. [...]"
(p. 153)
Provenance
Google Books
Citation
At least 4 entries in ESTC (1728, 1733, 1734, 1748).

See Arete-Logia or, an Enquiry Into the Original of Moral Virtue; Wherein the False Notions of Machiavel, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Mr. Bayle, As They Are Collected and Digested by the Author of the Fable of the Bees, Are Examin'd and Confuted; ... To Which Is Prefix'd, a Prefatory Introduction, in a Letter to That Author. By Alexander Innes (Westminster: Printed by J. Cluer and A. Campbell, for B. Creake, 1728). <Link to ECCO><Link to Google Books>

Note, the work's publication history is detailed in the ODNB: Campbell wrote the work after reading Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, and in 1726 he entrusted the manuscript to Alexander Innes, who published the work under his own name. In 1730 Campbell asserted his authorship of the Enquiry in the "Advertisement" to his Discourse Proving that the Apostles were no Enthusiasts. In the 1733 republication of the Enquiry, Innes's duplicity was made public.
Date of Entry
07/16/2013

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