"In reason's light, eternal word, exprest, / Stamp'd with his image in the creature's breast"

— Nugent, Robert [or Craggs] (1702-1788)


Date
1739
Metaphor
"In reason's light, eternal word, exprest, / Stamp'd with his image in the creature's breast"
Metaphor in Context
But though self-int'rest follow virtue's train!
Yet selfish think not virtue's end is gain!
Older than time, ere int'rest had a name,
Justice existed, and is still the same;
Alike the creature's and creator's guide,
His rule to form, the law by which we're ty'd:
In reason's light, eternal word, exprest,
Stamp'd with his image in the creature's breast.
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
11 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1739, 1748, 1751, 1755, 1758, 1763, 1765, 1775, 1782, 1789).

Text from Memoir of Robert, Earl Nugent: With Letters, Poems, and Appendices: By Claud Nugent: With Twelve Reproductions from Family Portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough and Others (London: William Heinemann, 1898).

But see Odes and Epistles (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1739). <Link to ECCO>

Found also in Dodsley's A Collection of Poems (1748 and reprintings) and Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789)
Date of Entry
06/21/2004

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