"The lover, like the poor Indian, who prefers glass, beads and red feathers to more useful commodities, sets his affections upon a trifle, which some illusion of fancy has endeared, and which is to him more valuable than the gems of the eastern world, or the mines of the west; while reason, like the sage European, who scorns beads and feathers, in vain condemns his folly."
— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Cadell
Date
1790
Metaphor
"The lover, like the poor Indian, who prefers glass, beads and red feathers to more useful commodities, sets his affections upon a trifle, which some illusion of fancy has endeared, and which is to him more valuable than the gems of the eastern world, or the mines of the west; while reason, like the sage European, who scorns beads and feathers, in vain condemns his folly."
Metaphor in Context
Affection, like genius, can build its structures "on the baseless fabric of a vision;" and the estimation which things hold in a lover's fancy, can be tried by no calculations of reason. The lover, like the poor Indian, who prefers glass, beads and red feathers to more useful commodities, sets his affections upon a trifle, which some illusion of fancy has endeared, and which is to him more valuable than the gems of the eastern world, or the mines of the west; while reason, like the sage European, who scorns beads and feathers, in vain condemns his folly.
(I.v, p. 186)
(I.v, p. 186)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1790).
Julia, a Novel; Interspersed with Some Poetical Pieces. By Helen Maria Williams. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790). <Vol. I, Link to ECCO-TCP><Vol. II, Link to ECCO-TCP>
Julia, a Novel; Interspersed with Some Poetical Pieces. By Helen Maria Williams. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790). <Vol. I, Link to ECCO-TCP><Vol. II, Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
08/16/2013
