"If our recollection or imagination be not a repetition of animal movements, I ask, in my turn, What is it? You tell me it consists of images or pictures of things. Where is this extensive canvas hung up? or where are the numerous receptacles in which those are deposited? or to what else in the animal system have they any similitude?"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Author

Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Work Title

Zoonomia: or, The Laws of Organic Life [Vol. I]

Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Johnson
Date
1794
Metaphor
"If our recollection or imagination be not a repetition of animal movements, I ask, in my turn, What is it? You tell me it consists of images or pictures of things. Where is this extensive canvas hung up? or where are the numerous receptacles in which those are deposited? or to what else in the animal system have they any similitude?"
Metaphor in Context
VII. If our recollection or imagination be not a repetition of animal movements, I ask, in my turn, What is it? You tell me it consists of images or pictures of things. Where is this extensive canvas hung up? or where are the numerous receptacles in which those are deposited? or to what else in the animal system have they any similitude?

That pleasing picture of objects, represented in miniature on the retina of the eye, seems to have given rise to this illusive oratory! It was forgot that this representation belongs rather to the laws of light, than to those of life; and may with equal elegance be seen in the camera obscura as in the eye; and that the picture vanishes for ever, when the object is withdrawn.
(p. 29)
Categories
Visual Arts::Pictures Visual Arts::Images Visual Arts::Canvas Container::Receptacle
Provenance
ECCO-TCP
Citation
Zoonomia: or, The Laws of Organic Life, vol. 1 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1794). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
09/28/2013

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