"Jealous for thy authority in thy mansion-house and outward family, but not in the least for thy authority within, in thy chiefest mansion, thy principal economy? Are the servants here to talk high and in what tone they please? Must theirs be the last word, their dictates the rules of action? O slave of slaves!"

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)


Date
1900
Metaphor
"Jealous for thy authority in thy mansion-house and outward family, but not in the least for thy authority within, in thy chiefest mansion, thy principal economy? Are the servants here to talk high and in what tone they please? Must theirs be the last word, their dictates the rules of action? O slave of slaves!"
Metaphor in Context
By whiles this question. Am I talked with, or do I talk? For something still there is that talks within and leads that very discourse which leads in action, and is what we call conduct.--Whence then the conduct? What leading? what control? who governs, or what ?--Thus in a family: Who rules in this house? Who's master ?--Learn by the voices. Who speaks with a high tone? Who decides and gives judgment? Who has the talk, the last word? Is it the servants ?--Then the servants are masters.--And dost thou blush at this?

How is this, man! What! Jealous for thy authority in thy mansion-house and outward family, but not in the least for thy authority within, in thy chiefest mansion, thy principal economy? Are the servants here to talk high and in what tone they please? Must theirs be the last word, their dictates the rules of action? O slave of slaves!

How necessary this counter-discourse with the presenting fancies, and how real it is or ought to be, learn by the too long experience of the other of wrong kind. What ability, promptitude, dexterity in those? As particularly in the cases
(p. 177)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
See The Life, Unpublished Letters, and Philosophical Regimen of Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, ed. Benjamin Rand (London and New York: Swan Sonnenschein and Macmillan, 1900). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
07/28/2014

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