"My imagination changes the scene perpetually: at one moment, I am embraced by a kind and relenting parent, who takes me to that heart from which I have hitherto been benished, and supplicates, through me, peace and forgiveness from the ashes of my mother!--at another, he regards me with detestation, considers me as the living image of an injured saint, and repulses me with horror!"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Lowndes
Date
1778, 1779
Metaphor
"My imagination changes the scene perpetually: at one moment, I am embraced by a kind and relenting parent, who takes me to that heart from which I have hitherto been benished, and supplicates, through me, peace and forgiveness from the ashes of my mother!--at another, he regards me with detestation, considers me as the living image of an injured saint, and repulses me with horror!"
Metaphor in Context
The subject is discussed here eternally. Captain Mirvan and Madame Duval, as usual, quarrel whenever it is started: but I am so wholly engrossed by my own reflections, that I cannot even listen to them. My imagination changes the scene perpetually: at one moment, I am embraced by a kind and relenting parent, who takes me to that heart from which I have hitherto been benished, and supplicates, through me, peace and forgiveness from the ashes of my mother!--at another, he regards me with detestation, considers me as the living image of an injured saint, and repulses me with horror!--But I will not afflict you with the melancholy phantasms of my brain. I will endeavour to compose my mind to a more tranquil state, and forbear to write again, till I have, in some measure, succeeded.
(I, pp. 175-176)
Provenance
Searching ECCO-TCP
Citation
23 entries in ESTC (1778, 1780, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1788, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1797, 1800).

See Evelina, or, a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (London: Printed for T. Lowndes, 1778). <Link to LION>

Text also drawn from Evelina: or, a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. (Dublin: Printed for Messrs. Price, Corcoran, R. Cross, Fitzsimons, W. Whitestone [etc.], 1779). <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II>

Reading Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World, ed. Margaret Doody (New York: Penguin, 1994). Note, Doody uses the third edition, published in 1779, as her copy-text.
Date of Entry
07/23/2014

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