"Who can just Laws without Reserve obey, / Laws made secure from Arbitrary Sway, / Where Pow'r is limited, Justice confin'd, / To Rules of Reason, not a lawless Mind, / For that is Tyranny in any kind?"
— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed, and sold for the Benefit of the author, by George Sawbridge ... Robert Knaplock and Henry Clements [etc.]
Date
1705, 1715
Metaphor
"Who can just Laws without Reserve obey, / Laws made secure from Arbitrary Sway, / Where Pow'r is limited, Justice confin'd, / To Rules of Reason, not a lawless Mind, / For that is Tyranny in any kind?"
Metaphor in Context
Good Heavens! Is this our Native Property,
For which we so much Time and Blood imploy?
No sure, 'tis something more and greater still,
We fancy't Freedom to do what we will.
Alas! is this the Liberty we boast,
For which just Heav'n our great Forefather curst?
Then he that is most Happy, and most Free,
Is he that knows least of such Liberty.
Who can just Laws without Reserve obey,
Laws made secure from Arbitrary Sway,
Where Pow'r is limited, Justice confin'd,
To Rules of Reason, not a lawless Mind,
For that is Tyranny in any kind?
For which we so much Time and Blood imploy?
No sure, 'tis something more and greater still,
We fancy't Freedom to do what we will.
Alas! is this the Liberty we boast,
For which just Heav'n our great Forefather curst?
Then he that is most Happy, and most Free,
Is he that knows least of such Liberty.
Who can just Laws without Reserve obey,
Laws made secure from Arbitrary Sway,
Where Pow'r is limited, Justice confin'd,
To Rules of Reason, not a lawless Mind,
For that is Tyranny in any kind?
Provenance
Found again searching "law" and "mind HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1705, 1715).
Text from State Tracts: Containing Many Necessary Observations and Reflections on the State of our Affairs at Home and Abroad; With some Secret Memoirs. By the Author of the Examiner (London: Printed, and sold ... by George Sawbridge ... Robert Knaplock and Henry Clements, 1715). <Link to LION>
Wrongly attributed to Oldisworth in HDIS (Chadwyck-Healey, LION); corrected in Foxon. I find a 1705 edition in ESTC attributed to Joseph Browne (fl. 1700-1721). See Liberty and Property. A Satyr. (London: Printed and sold by B. Bragg, at the Blue Ball in Ave-Mary-Lane, 1705). <Link to ESTC>
Text from State Tracts: Containing Many Necessary Observations and Reflections on the State of our Affairs at Home and Abroad; With some Secret Memoirs. By the Author of the Examiner (London: Printed, and sold ... by George Sawbridge ... Robert Knaplock and Henry Clements, 1715). <Link to LION>
Wrongly attributed to Oldisworth in HDIS (Chadwyck-Healey, LION); corrected in Foxon. I find a 1705 edition in ESTC attributed to Joseph Browne (fl. 1700-1721). See Liberty and Property. A Satyr. (London: Printed and sold by B. Bragg, at the Blue Ball in Ave-Mary-Lane, 1705). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/21/2004
Date of Review
01/26/2010
