"Could human courts take vengeance on the mind, / Axes might rust, and racks and gibbets fall: / Guard then thy mind, and leave the rest to fate."
— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G. Hawkins
Date
1745
Metaphor
"Could human courts take vengeance on the mind, / Axes might rust, and racks and gibbets fall: / Guard then thy mind, and leave the rest to fate."
Metaphor in Context
If one must suffer, which should least be spared?
The pains of mind surpass the pains of sense:
Ask, then, the Gout, what torment is in guilt.
The joys of sense to mental joys are mean:
Sense on the present only feeds; the soul
On past and future forages for joy.
'Tis hers, by retrospect, through time to range;
And, forward, Time's great sequel to survey.
Could human courts take vengeance on the mind,
Axes might rust, and racks and gibbets fall:
Guard then thy mind, and leave the rest to fate.
(p. 172, ll. 857-67)
The pains of mind surpass the pains of sense:
Ask, then, the Gout, what torment is in guilt.
The joys of sense to mental joys are mean:
Sense on the present only feeds; the soul
On past and future forages for joy.
'Tis hers, by retrospect, through time to range;
And, forward, Time's great sequel to survey.
Could human courts take vengeance on the mind,
Axes might rust, and racks and gibbets fall:
Guard then thy mind, and leave the rest to fate.
(p. 172, ll. 857-67)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Uniform title published in 9 volumes, from 1742 to 1745. At least 133 reprintings after 1745 in ESTC (1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1755, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800).
Edward Young, The Complaint. Or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality. Night the Eighth. Virtue's Apology: Or, The Man of the World Answer'd. (London: Printed for G. Hawkins, 1745).
Text from The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D., 2 vols. (London: William Tegg, 1854). <Link to Google Books>
Reading Edward Young, Night Thoughts, ed. Stephen Cornford (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989).
Edward Young, The Complaint. Or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality. Night the Eighth. Virtue's Apology: Or, The Man of the World Answer'd. (London: Printed for G. Hawkins, 1745).
Text from The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D., 2 vols. (London: William Tegg, 1854). <Link to Google Books>
Reading Edward Young, Night Thoughts, ed. Stephen Cornford (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989).
Date of Entry
09/02/2013
