"The Memory is not only a Register of Tales, and Names, and Fictions, (the Materials of common Discourse) but may be called a Register of every thing that enters into the Senses and the Imagination."
— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Osborn and T. Longman
Date
1734
Metaphor
"The Memory is not only a Register of Tales, and Names, and Fictions, (the Materials of common Discourse) but may be called a Register of every thing that enters into the Senses and the Imagination."
Metaphor in Context
AEMILIUS
The Memory is not only a Register of Tales, and Names, and Fictions, (the Materials of common Discourse) but may be called a Register of every thing that enters into the Senses and the Imagination. But what shall we think of this strange Sieve, which lets some things pass through, and retains others; and often retains the most unprofitable? To forget, is certainly among the Defects of our Nature: and yet, as things go, it were a kind of Happiness to forget the most part of what we hear; and we should be at no loss to forget even several things that we read: tho' we may blame our selves more for what we read than what we hear, not having at all times the choice of our Company.
(p. 86)
The Memory is not only a Register of Tales, and Names, and Fictions, (the Materials of common Discourse) but may be called a Register of every thing that enters into the Senses and the Imagination. But what shall we think of this strange Sieve, which lets some things pass through, and retains others; and often retains the most unprofitable? To forget, is certainly among the Defects of our Nature: and yet, as things go, it were a kind of Happiness to forget the most part of what we hear; and we should be at no loss to forget even several things that we read: tho' we may blame our selves more for what we read than what we hear, not having at all times the choice of our Company.
(p. 86)
Categories
Provenance
ECCO-TCP
Citation
Three entries in ESTC (1734, 1762, 1763).
See Essays Moral and Philosophical, on Several Subjects: Viz. A View of the Human Faculties. (London: Printed for J. Osborn and T. Longman, 1734). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
See Essays Moral and Philosophical, on Several Subjects: Viz. A View of the Human Faculties. (London: Printed for J. Osborn and T. Longman, 1734). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
08/18/2013
