"For as in bodies, thus in souls we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind: / Pride, where Wit fails, steps in to our defence, / And fills up all the mighty void of sense"
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1711
Metaphor
"For as in bodies, thus in souls we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind: / Pride, where Wit fails, steps in to our defence, / And fills up all the mighty void of sense"
Metaphor in Context
Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest biass rules,
Is Pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth deny'd,
She gives in large Recruits of needful pride;
For as in bodies, thus in souls we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind:
Pride, where Wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day.
Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry friend--and ev'ry foe.
(II, ll. 201-214)
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest biass rules,
Is Pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth deny'd,
She gives in large Recruits of needful pride;
For as in bodies, thus in souls we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind:
Pride, where Wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day.
Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry friend--and ev'ry foe.
(II, ll. 201-214)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Date of Entry
10/28/2003
