"I have but one Child in the World, who is now nigh four Years old, and promises well; his Mother left him to me very young, and my Affections (I must confess) are strongly placed on him. It has pleased God, by the liberal Provisions of our Ancestors, to free me from the toiling Cares of providing a Fortune for him; so that my whole Study shall be to lay up a Treasure of Knowledge in his Mind, for his Happiness both in this Life and the next."

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)


Date
(March 2, 1692/3); 1708
Metaphor
"I have but one Child in the World, who is now nigh four Years old, and promises well; his Mother left him to me very young, and my Affections (I must confess) are strongly placed on him. It has pleased God, by the liberal Provisions of our Ancestors, to free me from the toiling Cares of providing a Fortune for him; so that my whole Study shall be to lay up a Treasure of Knowledge in his Mind, for his Happiness both in this Life and the next."
Metaphor in Context
I am fully convinced by the Arguments you give me for not turning your Book into the scholastick Form of Logick and Metaphysicks, and I had no other Reason to advise the other, but merely to get it promoted the easier in our University; one of the Businesses of which Places is to learn according to the old Forms. And this minds me to let you know the great Joy and Satisfaction of Mind I conceiv'd on your Promise of the Method of Learning; there could nothing be more acceptable to me than the Hopes thereof, and that on this Account: I have but one Child in the World, who is now nigh four Years old, and promises well; his Mother left him to me very young, and my Affections (I must confess) are strongly placed on him. It has pleased God, by the liberal Provisions of our Ancestors, to free me from the toiling Cares of providing a Fortune for him; so that my whole Study shall be to lay up a Treasure of Knowledge in his Mind, for his Happiness both in this Life and the next. And I have been often thinking of some Method for his Instruction, that may best obtain the End I propose. And now, to my great Joy, I hope to be abundantly supply'd by your Method. [...]
(p. 29)
Provenance
Searching in Google Books
Citation
3 entries in ESTC for uniform title Some Familiar Letters Between Mr. Locke and Several of His Friends (1708, 1737, 1742).

Text from Familiar Letters Between Mr. John Locke, and Several of His Friends. In Which Are Explain'd, His Notions in His Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and in Some of His Other Works, 4th ed. (London: Printed for F. Noble; T. Wright; and J. Duncan, 1742). <Link to ESTC><Link to Google Books>. ESTC note: "A reissue of the 1737 Bettesworth and Hitch edition, with the addition of the 'life', and a cancel titlepage."

See also Some Familiar Letters Between Mr. Locke, and Several of His Friends. (London: Printed for A. and J. Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster Row, 1708). <Link to ESTC><Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
10/13/2013

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