"I would neither corrupt my imagination with impurity, nor steel my heart by barbarous narratives and sanguinary persecutions."

— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Cadell, junior, and W. Davies
Date
1797
Metaphor
"I would neither corrupt my imagination with impurity, nor steel my heart by barbarous narratives and sanguinary persecutions."
Metaphor in Context
"I could never read (said Emily) those voluminous romances. Their heroes and heroines are a distinct order of beings from ourselves; and I have my suspicions, whether they ever existed but in the prurient fancies of their authors. Their descriptions are never local, one place is depicted like another; their style is insufferably languid; their incidents, without being romantic, violate the known customs of every age; and their authors seem to have merely despoiled Homer of his true heroes, to transform them into the disgusting petit-maitres of Paris. A race that, when they existed, were only ridiculed, and that now are quite obsolete. Such are their protracted conclusions, that we cannot but quite forget what we had read, should we ever arrive at the close of the twelfth volume."

"Abominable! I forget nothing. Since, Miss, you don't like bulky books, mayhap you have never read the Bible through?"

"Many parts I have never finished. I would neither corrupt my imagination with impurity, nor steel my heart by barbarous narratives and sanguinary persecutions." (II.xvii, pp. 20-1)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "steel" and "heart" in ECCO-TCP
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1797).

Vaurien: or, Sketches of the Times: Exhibiting Views of the Philosophies, Religions, Politics, Literature, and Manners of the Age. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, junior, and W. Davies, (successors to Mr. Cadell); and J. Murray and S. Highley, 1797). <Link to ESTC><Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II>
Date of Entry
03/12/2014

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