"The mind is like the eye. It cannot take in an object that is very great or very little."
— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)
Place of Publication
Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed by R. Fleming
Date
1751
Metaphor
"The mind is like the eye. It cannot take in an object that is very great or very little."
Metaphor in Context
IN short, difficulties press both ways. But, these difficulties, when examined, do not arise from any inconsistency in our ideas. They are occasioned, merely, by the limited capacity of the mind of man. We cannot comprehend an eternity of existence. It is too bulky an object. It eludes our grasp. The mind is like the eye. It cannot take in an object that is very great or very little. This, plainly is the source of our difficulties, when we attempt speculations so remote from common apprehension. Abstract reasoning upon such a subject, must lead into endless perplexities. It is indeed less difficult to conceive one eternal unchangeable being who made the world, than to conceive a blind chain of causes and effects. At least, we are disposed to the former, as being more agreeable to the imagination. But as we cannot find any inconsistency in the latter supposition, we cannot justly say that it is demonstrably false.
(pp. 318-319)
(pp. 318-319)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 3 entries in ESTC (1751, 1758, 1779).
Lord Kames, Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion: in Two Parts. (Edinburgh: Printed by R. Fleming, for A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, 1751). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Lord Kames, Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion: in Two Parts. (Edinburgh: Printed by R. Fleming, for A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, 1751). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
09/16/2013
