"'Yes,' said he, with an half-suppressed sigh, 'the memory of those we love--of times for ever past! in such an hour as this steals upon the mind, like a strain of distant music in the stillness of night;--all tender and harmonious as this landscape, sleeping in the mellow moon-light.'"

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson
Date
1794
Metaphor
"'Yes,' said he, with an half-suppressed sigh, 'the memory of those we love--of times for ever past! in such an hour as this steals upon the mind, like a strain of distant music in the stillness of night;--all tender and harmonious as this landscape, sleeping in the mellow moon-light.'"
Metaphor in Context
St. Aubert was silent; Emily perceived a warm tear fall upon the hand he held; she knew the object of his thoughts; hers too had, for some time, been occupied by the remembrance of her mother. He seemed by an effort to rouse himfelf. "Yes," said he, with an half-suppressed sigh, "the memory of those we love--of times for ever past! in such an hour as this steals upon the mind, like a strain of distant music in the stillness of night;--all tender and harmonious as this landscape, sleeping in the mellow moon-light." After the pause of a moment, St. Aubert added, "I have always fancied, that I thought with more clearness, and precision, at such an hour than at any other, and that heart must be insensible in a great degree, that does not soften to its influence. But many such there are."
(I, pp. 122-3; p. 47)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
9 entries in ESTC (1794, 1795, 1799, 1800).

The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Romance; Interspersed with some Pieces of Poetry. By Ann Radcliffe, Author of the Romance of the Forest, etc. 4 vols. (London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson, 1794). <Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP, Vol. I>

Reading The Mysteries of Udolpho, ed. Jacqueline Howard (New York: Penguin Books, 2001).
Date of Entry
03/06/2014

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