"The mind, says he, is a barren soil, is a soil soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized, and enriched with foreign matter."
— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Wilkie; and T. Cadell
Date
1777
Metaphor
"The mind, says he, is a barren soil, is a soil soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized, and enriched with foreign matter."
Metaphor in Context
The president of the royal academy in his admirable Discourse on imitation, has set the folly of depending on unassisted genius, in the clearest light; and has shewn the necessity of adding the knowledge of others, to our own native powers, in his usual striking and masterly manner.
The mind, says he, is a barren soil, is a soil soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized, and enriched with foreign matter.
YET it has been objected that study is a great enemy to originality; but even if this were true, it would perhaps be as well that an author should give us the ideas of still better writers, mixed and assimilated with the matter in his own mind, as those crude and undigested thoughts which he values under the notion that they are original. The sweetest honey neither tastes of the rose, the honeysuckle, nor the carnation, yet it is compounded of the very essence of them all.
(pp. 193-194)
The mind, says he, is a barren soil, is a soil soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized, and enriched with foreign matter.
YET it has been objected that study is a great enemy to originality; but even if this were true, it would perhaps be as well that an author should give us the ideas of still better writers, mixed and assimilated with the matter in his own mind, as those crude and undigested thoughts which he values under the notion that they are original. The sweetest honey neither tastes of the rose, the honeysuckle, nor the carnation, yet it is compounded of the very essence of them all.
(pp. 193-194)
Categories
Provenance
ECCO-TCP
Citation
11 entries in ESTC (1777, 1778, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1791, 1792, 1796).
Essays on Various Subjects: Principally Designed for Young Ladies. (London: Printed for J. Wilkie; and T. Cadell, 1777). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Essays on Various Subjects: Principally Designed for Young Ladies. (London: Printed for J. Wilkie; and T. Cadell, 1777). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
10/16/2013
