"O truly royal! who behold the law, / And rule of beings in your Maker's mind; / And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw, / To fit the levelled use of humankind."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Henry Herringman
Date
1666
Metaphor
"O truly royal! who behold the law, / And rule of beings in your Maker's mind; / And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw, / To fit the levelled use of humankind."
Metaphor in Context
This I foretell from your auspicious care,
  Who great in search of God and nature grow;
Who best your wise Creator's praise declare,
  Since best to praise His works is best to know.

O truly royal! who behold the law,
  And rule of beings in your Maker's mind;
And thence, like limbecs , rich ideas draw,
  To fit the levelled use of humankind
.
(p. 53, ll. 657-664)
Provenance
Reading. Found again in Marshall Brown's "Romanticism and Enlightenment" in The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism, ed. Stuart Curran (Cambridge UP, 1993), 32.
Citation
Text from John Dryden, ed. Keith Walker (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

See also Annus mirabilis, The year of wonders, 1666 an historical poem containing the progress and various successes of our naval war with Holland, under the conduct of His Highness Prince Rupert, and His Grace the Duke of Albemarl: and describing the fire of London (London: Printed for Henry Herringman, 1667). <Link to EEBO>
Date of Entry
01/26/2004
Date of Review
04/19/2011

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