"The soul of man being therefore at the first as a book, wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted; we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto perfection of knowledge."
— Hooker, Richard (1554-1600)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
John Windet
Date
1594
Metaphor
"The soul of man being therefore at the first as a book, wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted; we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto perfection of knowledge."
Metaphor in Context
In the matter of knowledge, there is between the angels of God and the children of men this difference: angels already have full and complete knowledge in the highest degree that can be imparted unto them; men, if we view them in their spring, are at the first without understanding or knowledge at all. Nevertheless from this utter vacuity they grow by degrees, till they come at length to be even as the angels themselves are. That which agreeth to the one now, the other shall attain unto in the end; they are not so far disjoined and severed, but that they come at length to meet. The soul of man being therefore at the first as a book, wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted; we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto perfection of knowledge.
(I.vi.1)
(I.vi.1)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Maclean, Kenneth. John Locke and English Literature of the Eighteenth Century (New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), 32.
Found again reading Frederick Kiefer's Writing on the Renaissance Stage: Written Words, Printed Pages, Metaphoric Books (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996), 122. And again in Neal Wood's "Tabula Rasa, Social Environmentalism, and the 'English Paradigm'." Journal of the History of Ideas 53.4 (1992): 647-68, pp. 652-3. See also Robert K. Faulkner, "Reason and Revelation in Hooker's Ethics" The American Political Science Review 59:3 (1965): 680-90, p. 658.
Found again reading Frederick Kiefer's Writing on the Renaissance Stage: Written Words, Printed Pages, Metaphoric Books (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996), 122. And again in Neal Wood's "Tabula Rasa, Social Environmentalism, and the 'English Paradigm'." Journal of the History of Ideas 53.4 (1992): 647-68, pp. 652-3. See also Robert K. Faulkner, "Reason and Revelation in Hooker's Ethics" The American Political Science Review 59:3 (1965): 680-90, p. 658.
Citation
Many variant titles; searching ESTC (1593, 1597, 1604, 1611, 1617, 1622, 1632, 1636, 1639, 1648, 1676).
See Of the Lavves of Ecclesiasticall Politie. Eyght Bookes. By Richard Hooker. (Printed at London: By Iohn Windet, dwelling at the signe of the Crosse keyes neere Powles Wharffe, and are there to be soulde, 1593). <Link to ESTC>
See also Of the Lavves of Ecclesiasticall Politie, Eight Bookes. By Richard Hooker, 2nd edition (Printed at London: By Iohn Windet, dwelling at the signe of the Crosse-keyes neare Paules wharffe, and are there to be solde, 1604). <Link to EEBO><Link to EEBO-TCP>
Originally searching text from Richard Hooker, The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. Richard Hooker, 7th edition revised by the Very Rev. R.W. Church and the Rev. F. Paget (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888), vol. 1 of 3. <Link to OLL>
Reading in Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Vol. 1 of The Works of Richard Hooker, ed. Georges Edelen, Folger Library edition (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1977).
See Of the Lavves of Ecclesiasticall Politie. Eyght Bookes. By Richard Hooker. (Printed at London: By Iohn Windet, dwelling at the signe of the Crosse keyes neere Powles Wharffe, and are there to be soulde, 1593). <Link to ESTC>
See also Of the Lavves of Ecclesiasticall Politie, Eight Bookes. By Richard Hooker, 2nd edition (Printed at London: By Iohn Windet, dwelling at the signe of the Crosse-keyes neare Paules wharffe, and are there to be solde, 1604). <Link to EEBO><Link to EEBO-TCP>
Originally searching text from Richard Hooker, The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. Richard Hooker, 7th edition revised by the Very Rev. R.W. Church and the Rev. F. Paget (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888), vol. 1 of 3. <Link to OLL>
Reading in Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Vol. 1 of The Works of Richard Hooker, ed. Georges Edelen, Folger Library edition (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1977).
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
03/27/2005
Date of Review
06/21/2011
