"Dear sensibility! source inexhausted of all that's precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw--and 'tis thou who lifts him up to Heaven--eternal fountain of our feelings!--'tis here I trace thee--and this is thy divinity which stirs within me--not that, in some sad and sickening moments, 'my soul shrinks back upon herself, and startles at destruction'--mere pomp of words!--but that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself--All comes from thee, great, great Sensorium of the world! which vibrates, if a hair of our heads but falls upon the ground, in the remotest desert of thy creation."
— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt
Date
1768
Metaphor
"Dear sensibility! source inexhausted of all that's precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw--and 'tis thou who lifts him up to Heaven--eternal fountain of our feelings!--'tis here I trace thee--and this is thy divinity which stirs within me--not that, in some sad and sickening moments, 'my soul shrinks back upon herself, and startles at destruction'--mere pomp of words!--but that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself--All comes from thee, great, great Sensorium of the world! which vibrates, if a hair of our heads but falls upon the ground, in the remotest desert of thy creation."
Metaphor in Context
--Dear sensibility! source inexhausted of all that's precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw--and 'tis thou who lifts him up to Heaven--eternal fountain of our feelings!--'tis here I trace thee--and this is thy divinity which stirs within me--not that, in some sad and sickening moments, "my soul shrinks back upon herself, and startles at destruction"--mere pomp of words!--but that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself--All comes from thee, great, great Sensorium of the world! which vibrates, if a hair of our heads but falls upon the ground, in the remotest desert of thy creation.--Touch'd with thee, Eugenius draws my curtain when I languish--hears my tale of symptoms, and blames the weather for the disorder of his nerves. Thou giv'st a portion of it sometimes to the roughest peasant who traverses the bleakest mountains--he finds the lacerated lamb of another's flock-- This moment I behold him leaning with his head against his crook, with piteous inclination looking down upon it--Oh! had I come one moment sooner!--it bleeds to death--his gentle heart bleeds with it--
(II, pp. 182-3)
(II, pp. 182-3)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Over 86 entries in ESTC (1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1787, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1800).
First edition published February 27, 1768, in two issues (standard paper and large "imperial" paper issue).
See A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick., 2 vols. 2nd ed. (London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1768). <Link to ESTC>
Reading Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey, ed. Paul Goring (New York and London: Penguin, 2001)
First edition published February 27, 1768, in two issues (standard paper and large "imperial" paper issue).
See A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick., 2 vols. 2nd ed. (London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1768). <Link to ESTC>
Reading Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey, ed. Paul Goring (New York and London: Penguin, 2001)
Date of Entry
10/26/2013
