"The Remembrance of past Pleasures affects us with a kind of tender Grief, like what we suffer for departed Friends; and the Ideas of both may be said to haunt our Imaginations"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1749
Metaphor
"The Remembrance of past Pleasures affects us with a kind of tender Grief, like what we suffer for departed Friends; and the Ideas of both may be said to haunt our Imaginations"
Metaphor in Context
Mrs. Fitzpatrick, after a Silence of a few Moments, fetching a deep Sigh, thus began:

'It is natural to the Unhappy to feel a secret Concern in recollecting those Periods of their Lives which have been most delightful to them. The Remembrance of past Pleasures affects us with a kind of tender Grief, like what we suffer for departed Friends; and the Ideas of both may be said to haunt our Imaginations.

'For this Reason, I never reflect without Sorrow on those Days (the happiest far of my Life) which we spent together, when both were under the Care of my AuntWestern . Alas! why are Miss Graveairs, and Miss Giddy no more. You remember, I am sure, when we knew each other by no other Names. Indeed you gave me the latter Appellation with too just Cause. I have since experienced how much I deserved it. You, my Sophia, was always my Superior in every thing, and I heartily hope you will be so in your Fortune. I shall never forget the wise and matronly Advice you once gave me, when I lamented being disappointed of a Ball, though you could not be then fourteen Years old. --O my Sophy, how blest must have been my Situation, when I could think such a Disappointment a Misfortune; and when indeed it was the greatest I had ever known.'
(IV.xi.4, pp. 115-6)
Provenance
Searching "haunt" and "imagination" in HDIS (Prose)
Citation
Over 75 entries in the ESTC (1749, 1750, 1751, 1759, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1797, 1800).

See The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes. By Henry Fielding. (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1749). <Link to ECCO><Link to LION>

See also three-volume Dublin edition in ECCO-TCP <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II><Vol. III>

Reading The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Norton Critical Edition, ed. Sheridan W. Baker. (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1973).

Also reading Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, eds. John Bender and Simon Stern (Oxford: OUP, 1996).
Date of Entry
04/27/2004

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