"And as these irritative ideas make up a part of the chain of our waking thoughts, introducing other ideas that engage our attention, though themselves are unattended to, we find it very difficult to investigate by what steps many of our hourly trains of ideas gain their admittance."
— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Johnson
Date
1794
Metaphor
"And as these irritative ideas make up a part of the chain of our waking thoughts, introducing other ideas that engage our attention, though themselves are unattended to, we find it very difficult to investigate by what steps many of our hourly trains of ideas gain their admittance."
Metaphor in Context
2. In like manner the irritative ideas suggest to us many other trains or tribes of ideas that are associated with them. On this kind of connection, language, letters, hieroglyphics, and ever kind of symbol, depend. The symbols themselves produce irritative ideas, or sensual motions, which we do not attend to; and other ideas, that are succeeded by sensation, are excited by their association with them. And as these irritative ideas make up a part of the chain of our waking thoughts, introducing other ideas that engage our attention, though themselves are unattended to, we find it very difficult to investigate by what steps many of our hourly trains of ideas gain their admittance.
(p. 40)
(p. 40)
Categories
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
