"The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light and Truth, and staring, with a full-levell'd Eye, the great Luminary of Spirits in the very Face."
— Norris, John (1657-1712)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for S. Manship; and W. Hawes
Date
1701, 1704
Metaphor
"The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light and Truth, and staring, with a full-levell'd Eye, the great Luminary of Spirits in the very Face."
Metaphor in Context
5. Another Reason may be the exceeding great Difficulty of the Argument, there being not any one Subject perhaps of a more refined and elevated Nature, or that will carry a Writer through a larger Sea of matter of the most Abstract, Sublime and Metaphysical Considederation. The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light and Truth, and staring, with a full-levell'd Eye, the great Luminary of Spirits in the very Face. And tho' Truth be the Food of the Soul, and the relish of it be very Delicious and Savoury to its Tast, and tho' even in this Sense also Light be sweet,and a pleasant thing it is to the Eye to behold the Sun, yet it is painful and troublesom to behold it So, and Men Love Shade and Darkness, rather than so strong and so high a Tide of Light.
(I, pp. 5-6)
Provenance
Reading in Google Books
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1701, 1704, 1722). [Part 2 published in 1704].
An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World. Design'd for Two Parts. The First Considering It Absolutely in It Self, and the Second in Relation to Human Understanding. Part 1. by John Norris, Rector of Bemerton, Near Sarum. (London: Printed for S. Manship, at the Ship in Cornhill, near the Royal-Exchange; and W. Hawes, at the Rose in Ludgate-Street near the West-End of St. Paul’s Church, 1701). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to Vol. I in Google Books><Link to Vol. II in Google Books>
An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World. Design'd for Two Parts. The First Considering It Absolutely in It Self, and the Second in Relation to Human Understanding. Part 1. by John Norris, Rector of Bemerton, Near Sarum. (London: Printed for S. Manship, at the Ship in Cornhill, near the Royal-Exchange; and W. Hawes, at the Rose in Ludgate-Street near the West-End of St. Paul’s Church, 1701). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to Vol. I in Google Books><Link to Vol. II in Google Books>
Date of Entry
07/30/2014
