"I spent the night ruminating on the future and in painting to my fancy the adventures which I should be likely to meet."

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)


Place of Publication
Philadelphia
Publisher
Hugh Maxwell
Date
1799
Metaphor
"I spent the night ruminating on the future and in painting to my fancy the adventures which I should be likely to meet."
Metaphor in Context
I determined to commence my journey the next morning. No wonder the prospect of so considerable a change in my condition should deprive me of sleep. I spent the night ruminating on the future and in painting to my fancy the adventures which I should be likely to meet. The foresight of man is in proportion to his knowledge. No wonder that in my state of profound ignorance, not the faintest preconceptions should be formed of the events that really befel me. My temper was inquisitive, but there was nothing in the scene to which I was going from which my curiosity expected to derive gratification. Discords and evil smells, unsavoury food, unwholesome labour, and irksome companions, were, in my opinion, the unavoidable attendants of a city.
(Part I, chapter 2, p. 250)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
First part published in 1799; second in 1800. Reading and transcribing text from Charles Brockden Brown, Three Gothic Novels. New York: Library of America,1998.
Date of Entry
07/16/2003
Date of Review
06/26/2007

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