"We have a faint Image of these Operations in Hawking: For Memory may be justly compar'd to the Dog that beats the Field, or the Wood, and that starts the Game; Imagination to the Falcon that clips it upon its Pinions after it; and Judgment to the Falconer, who directs the Flight, and who governs the whole."

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for H. Whitridge
Date
1729
Metaphor
"We have a faint Image of these Operations in Hawking: For Memory may be justly compar'd to the Dog that beats the Field, or the Wood, and that starts the Game; Imagination to the Falcon that clips it upon its Pinions after it; and Judgment to the Falconer, who directs the Flight, and who governs the whole."
Metaphor in Context
When the Prefacer tells us, in his very first Paragraph; that Homer is universally allow'd to have had the greatest Invention of any Writer whatever, he is so far from telling us, at the same Time, what Invention is, that he plainly discovers that he knows nothing of it. For he seems to take it for a peculiar Faculty of the Mind, distinct from Memory, Imagination, and Judgment; whereas it is the Effect and Result of the confederate Powers and Operation of all the three. We have a faint Image of these Operations in Hawking: For Memory may be justly compar'd to the Dog that beats the Field, or the Wood, and that starts the Game; Imagination to the Falcon that clips it upon its Pinions after it; and Judgment to the Falconer, who directs the Flight, and who governs the whole. But P. as has been said, takes it for a distinct Faculty; he opposes it to Judgment in this very Paragraph; and in the last Paragraph of the third Page, [Edit. 2.] he calls it the strong and the ruling Faculty.
(p. 22)
Provenance
Searching in C-H Lion
Citation
Dennis, John, Remarks upon Several Passages in the Preliminaries to the Dunciad, Both of the Quarto and the Duodecimo Edition. And upon Several Passages in Pope's Preface to his Translation of Homer's Iliad. In both which is shewn, The Author's Want of Judgment. (London: Printed for H. Whitridge, 1729). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/28/2013

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