"The Thinking Faculty ... Sighs to survey a Realm by right its own, / While Passion, [fierce co-heir] usurps the throne; / A second Nero, turbulent in sway, / His Pleasure, Noise; his Life one stormy Day; / Headstrong in love, and headstrong too in hate, / Resolv'd t'enslave the Mob, or sink the State; / Sad farce of pow'r, sad anarchy of things, / Where brutes are subjects, and where tyrants kings."
— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1735
Metaphor
"The Thinking Faculty ... Sighs to survey a Realm by right its own, / While Passion, [fierce co-heir] usurps the throne; / A second Nero, turbulent in sway, / His Pleasure, Noise; his Life one stormy Day; / Headstrong in love, and headstrong too in hate, / Resolv'd t'enslave the Mob, or sink the State; / Sad farce of pow'r, sad anarchy of things, / Where brutes are subjects, and where tyrants kings."
Metaphor in Context
Science like this, important and divine,
The good man offers Reason, at thy shrine.
Sees Thee, Truth, Nature, (well explain'd) the same:
Not chang'd when thought on, varying but in name;
Sees whence each aptitude, each diff'rence springs,
How thought ev'n acts and meaning lives in things:
Or else examines at less studious hours
The Thinking Faculty, its source, its pow'rs:
How, stretch'd like Kneller's canvas first it lies,
'Ere the soft tints awake, or outlines rise:
How, till the Finishing of thrice sev'n years,
The Master-Figure Reason scarce appears:
Sighs to survey a Realm by right its own,
While Passion, [fierce co-heir] usurps the throne;
A second Nero, turbulent in sway,
His Pleasure, Noise; his Life one stormy Day;
Headstrong in love, and headstrong too in hate,
Resolv'd t'enslave the Mob, or sink the State;
Sad farce of pow'r, sad anarchy of things,
Where brutes are subjects, and where tyrants kings.
(pp. 10-1, ll. 210-229)
The good man offers Reason, at thy shrine.
Sees Thee, Truth, Nature, (well explain'd) the same:
Not chang'd when thought on, varying but in name;
Sees whence each aptitude, each diff'rence springs,
How thought ev'n acts and meaning lives in things:
Or else examines at less studious hours
The Thinking Faculty, its source, its pow'rs:
How, stretch'd like Kneller's canvas first it lies,
'Ere the soft tints awake, or outlines rise:
How, till the Finishing of thrice sev'n years,
The Master-Figure Reason scarce appears:
Sighs to survey a Realm by right its own,
While Passion, [fierce co-heir] usurps the throne;
A second Nero, turbulent in sway,
His Pleasure, Noise; his Life one stormy Day;
Headstrong in love, and headstrong too in hate,
Resolv'd t'enslave the Mob, or sink the State;
Sad farce of pow'r, sad anarchy of things,
Where brutes are subjects, and where tyrants kings.
(pp. 10-1, ll. 210-229)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "passion" and "throne" in HDIS (Poetry); found again reading Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 138.
Citation
5 entries in ESTC (1735, 1736).
Text from Walter Harte, An Essay on Reason, 3rd ed., corr. (London: Printed for J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver, 1736). <Link to LION>
See also An Essay on Reason (London: Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1735). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Walter Harte, An Essay on Reason, 3rd ed., corr. (London: Printed for J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver, 1736). <Link to LION>
See also An Essay on Reason (London: Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1735). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
01/25/2006
