"In fine, from that servile spirit, Princes proceed to enforce, as a duty, those exterior marks of veneration; and establishing their tyrannic empire in our very hearts, they command us to bemoan when they bemoan, and to laugh when they laugh."

— Marat, Jean-Paul (1743-1793)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Becket; T. Payne; J. Almon; and Richardson & Urquhart
Date
1774
Metaphor
"In fine, from that servile spirit, Princes proceed to enforce, as a duty, those exterior marks of veneration; and establishing their tyrannic empire in our very hearts, they command us to bemoan when they bemoan, and to laugh when they laugh."
Metaphor in Context
By such inconsiderate marks of respect, you have confounded the real relations of things. For the loss of a Prince who could scarce lisp, the whole state assumes a melancholy face, all is mournful, feasts cease, places of public entertainment are shut: whilst for the loss of the benefactors of the patria, of those who have defended it at the expence of their blood, of those who have enriched it by their knowledge, of those who have honoured it with their virtues, no marks of public grief are seen, feasts continue, and all appear gay. Nay, when an allied Prince dies, the subjects, imitating the court, wear black, whilst in those public calamities, when the plague lays waste the provinces, when the fire of heaven consumes the cities, when famine drives to despair useful labourers, no mourning, no public marks of affliction are seen.

In fine, from that servile spirit, Princes proceed to enforce, as a duty, those exterior marks of veneration; and establishing their tyrannic empire in our very hearts, they command us to bemoan when they bemoan, and to laugh when they laugh.
(p. 228)
Categories
Provenance
ECCO-TCP
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1774).

See Chains of Slavery: A Work Wherein the Clandestine and Villainous attempts of Princes to Ruin Liberty are Pointed Out. (London: Printed for T. Becket; T. Payne; J. Almon; and Richardson & Urquhart, 1774). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
08/18/2013

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