Locke, John (1632-1704)

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding

London

Printed for Tho. Basset, and sold by Edw. Mory

1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"How much the Constitution of our Bodies, and the make of our animal Spirits, are concerned in this; and whether the Temper of the Brain make this difference, that in some it retains the Characters drawn on it like Marble, in others like Free-stone, and in others little better than Sand, I shall not here enquire."

Thus the Ideas, as well as Children, of our youth, often die before us: And our Minds represent to us those Tombs, to which we are approaching; where though the Brass and Marble remain, yet the Inscriptions are effaced by time, and the Imagery moulders away. The pictures drawn in our Minds, are laid in fading Colours; and if not sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear. How much the Constitution of our Bodies, and the make of our animal Spirits, are concerned in this; and whether the Temper of the Brain make this difference, that in some it retains the Characters drawn on it like Marble, in others like Free-stone, and in others little better than Sand, I shall not here enquire, though it may seem probable, that the Constitution of the Body does sometimes influence the Memory; since we oftentimes find a Disease quite strip the Mind of all its Ideas, and the flames of a Fever, in a few days, calcine all those Images to dust and confusion, which seem'd to be as lasting, as if graved in Marble.
(II.x.5)

Mineral::Marble Visual Arts::Drawing Mineral::Free-Stone Mineral::Sand Writing::Characters

Reading

Text from John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. Peter Nidditch (Oxford, Oxford UP, 1975). Note, Nidditch's text is based on 4th ed. of 1700.

09/15/2003