"The great laws of morality are indeed written in our hearts, and may be discovered by reason: but our reason is of slow growth, very unequally dispensed to different persons, liable to error, and confined within very narrow limits in all."

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by H. Hughs, For J. Walter
Date
1773
Metaphor
"The great laws of morality are indeed written in our hearts, and may be discovered by reason: but our reason is of slow growth, very unequally dispensed to different persons, liable to error, and confined within very narrow limits in all."
Metaphor in Context
The great laws of morality are indeed written in our hearts, and may be discovered by reason: but our reason is of slow growth, very unequally dispensed to different persons, liable to error, and confined within very narrow limits in all. If, therefore, God vouchsafed to grant a particular revelation of his will--if he has been so unspeakably gracious, as to send his Son into the world to reclaim mankind from error and wickedness--to die for our sins--and to teach us the way to eternal life--surely it becomes us to receive his precepts with the deepest reverence; to love and prize them above all things; and to study them constantly, with an earnest desire to conform our thoughts, our words, and actions to them.
(I, p. 21-3)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 32 entries in ESTC (1773, 1774, 1775, 1777, 1778, 1783, 1786, 1787, 1790, 1793, 1797, 1800).

See Hester Chapone, Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Lady, 2 vols. (London: Printed by H. Hughs for J. Walter, 1773). <Link to ECCO> <Vol. 1 in Google Books><Project Gutenberg Edition>
Date of Entry
06/16/2011

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