"What Struglings and Conflicts are there betwixt the Animal Inclinations, and the more masculine Dictates of Reason?"

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Jacob Tonson
Date
1686, 1689, 1697
Metaphor
"What Struglings and Conflicts are there betwixt the Animal Inclinations, and the more masculine Dictates of Reason?"
Metaphor in Context
True it is, the Rational Soul, if I may speak it without a Solecisme, is so incorporated into the Animal, that it seems to have its Birth and Growth with it. How doth Reason exert it self by little and little, what Helps and Arts are there us'd to make the Flower open and shew it self to the World? What Struglings and Conflicts are there betwixt the Animal Inclinations, and the more masculine Dictates of Reason? A sure Demonstration that they cannot proceed from one and the same immediate Impulse of Nature. The Sense and Notions we have of Reputation, of Justice, of Commerce, of Patience, and Moderation, with infinite other things relating to the moral Capacity, have no analogy with the Actions and Sentiments of Beasts, tho never so sagacious and well instructed; what then shall we say of the Intellectual Operations, and of the immense Capacity of the Mind?
(p. 6)
Provenance
Reading in EEBO-TCP
Citation
3 editions in ODNB, 2 found in ESTC (1686, 1689, 1697).

See Timothy Nourse, A Discourse Upon the Nature and Faculties of Man in Several Essayes With Some Considerations of Humane Life (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge’s Head in Chancery-Lane, near Fleet-street, 1686). <Link to ESTC><Link to EEBO-TCP>
Date of Entry
03/11/2016

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