"My curiosity grew more eager, in proportion as it was supplied with food, and every day added strength to the assurance that I was no insignificant and worthless being."

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)


Place of Publication
New York
Publisher
George Folliet Hopkins
Date
1800
Metaphor
"My curiosity grew more eager, in proportion as it was supplied with food, and every day added strength to the assurance that I was no insignificant and worthless being."
Metaphor in Context
I now set about carrying my plan of life into effect. I began with ardent zeal and unwearied diligence the career of medical study. I bespoke the counsels and instructions of my friend; attended him on his professional visits, and acted, in all practicable cases, as his substitute. I found this application of time more pleasurable than I had imagined. My mind gradually expanded itself, as it were, for the reception of new ideas. My curiosity grew more eager, in proportion as it was supplied with food, and every day added strength to the assurance that I was no insignificant and worthless being; that I was destined to be something in this scene of existence, and might someday lay claim to the gratitude and homage of my fellow-men.
(II,xxi, p. 589)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1799, 1800).

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.

See Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793. Second Part. By the author of Wieland, Ormond, Huntley [sic], &c. (New-York: Printed and sold by George F. Hopkins, at Washington’s Head, 136, Pearl-Street, 1800). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/17/2011

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