"As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination."

— Harris, James (1709-1780)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Nourse and P. Vailon
Date
1771
Metaphor
"As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination."
Metaphor in Context
As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination. SENSE is its receptive Power; IMAGINATION, its retentive. Had it Sense without Imagination, it would not be as Wax, but as Water, where tho' all Impressions may be instantly made, yet as soon as made they are as instantly lost.
(
Book III, ch. iv, pp. 356-7)
Provenance
Reading in Gale's Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).
Citation
6 entries in ESTC (1751, 1765, 1771, 1773, 1786, 1794).

Text from Hermes or a Philosophical Inqviry Concerning Universal Grammar by Iames Harris Esq. The Third Edition Revised and Corrected. (London: Printed for J. Nourse and P. Vailon, 1771). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
01/26/2004

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