Blog Post #2- Addison
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Two words that I have chosen and important are Credit and Virgin from the article Allegory of Publick Credit by Joseph Addison.
Addison uses the term credit as a type of money it can also be an I owe you. I think Addison associates credit with pureness and innocence. This pure and innocence relates to age and the adolescence. The younger you are the less creditable you are due to your age and reputation. As for people of age they are viewed are more creditable, respected with higher authority as opposed to a younger child in this case the virgin. When I hear the term virgin I automatically think of a girl who has not had sex. Someone that is pure and innocent. Addison says, “She was likewise (as I afterwards found) a greater Valetudinarian than any I had ever met with, even in her own Sex, and subject to such Momentary Consumptions, that in the twinkling of an Eye, she would fall away from the most florid Complexion and the most healthful State of Body, and wither into a Skeleton. Her Recoveries were often as sudden as her Decays, insomuch that she would revive in a Moment out of a wasting Distemper, into a Habit of the highest Health and Vigour.“ Something that is virgin is not only associated with the body but can also be a mental thing. Credit can be clean or dirty depending on the surrounding factors. The way he explains credit here it can also be considered as a virgin.
It’s true, Inez, that Addison associates Credit with a virgin, and pureness and innocence are associated with being less creditable — but he also associates being young with being beautiful — i.e., it’s a good thing that Credit is a beautiful virgin. In fact, I don’t see anywhere that Addison suggests that being young is to be uncreditable. Can you ground your interpretation in evidence from the text? Also, what’s the difference between “virgin” being associated with the body, or “a mental thing,” as you say in your post?
The two words you chose are both very important to the text overall. I think that you describe both words without connecting them to the text as a whole, and that this could be a great place to expand this subject. I also think that it would help give the post a more clear and defined purpose to the reader as to why you chose these words.
Both the words you chose to analyze are representative of the text and the underlying themes at work within it. It would be helpful for the reader if you split apart the analysis and discuss each word one at a time, then tying them together at the end with your quote from Addison.
I’m a little confused: the two words appear to contradict each other. You said that older people are more creditable, but virgins are usually young and pure. However, Addison likens the two, rather than pointing out their differences. Why do you think Addison chooses to depict credit as a virgin?