"For Nature by fix'd Laws has wisely join'd / The bright Ideas of the conscious Mind / To Motions of the liquid spirit'ous Train, / Thro' previous Traces of the humid Brain; / These, when the Soul by drowsy Sleep oppress'd / Into her private Cell retires to Rest, / Thro' beaten Paths their wand'ring Courses take, / And Images confus'd of things awake."
— Needler, Henry (1690-1718); Duncombe, William (1690-1769)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
J. Watts
Date
1724
Metaphor
"For Nature by fix'd Laws has wisely join'd / The bright Ideas of the conscious Mind / To Motions of the liquid spirit'ous Train, / Thro' previous Traces of the humid Brain; / These, when the Soul by drowsy Sleep oppress'd / Into her private Cell retires to Rest, / Thro' beaten Paths their wand'ring Courses take, / And Images confus'd of things awake."
Metaphor in Context
Dreams which in Sleep their various Scenes display,
And mimick the Transactions of the Day,
Nor from th' Omniscient Pow'rs above descend,
Nor future Good presage, nor Ill portend,
Nor the conceal'd Decrees of Fate foreshow,
But from our waking Thoughts mechanically flow.
For Nature by fix'd Laws has wisely join'd
The bright Ideas of the conscious Mind
To Motions of the liquid spirit'ous Train,
Thro' previous Traces of the humid Brain;
These, when the Soul by drowsy Sleep oppress'd
Into her private Cell retires to Rest,
Thro' beaten Paths their wand'ring Courses take,
And Images confus'd of things awake.
(ll. 1-14)
And mimick the Transactions of the Day,
Nor from th' Omniscient Pow'rs above descend,
Nor future Good presage, nor Ill portend,
Nor the conceal'd Decrees of Fate foreshow,
But from our waking Thoughts mechanically flow.
For Nature by fix'd Laws has wisely join'd
The bright Ideas of the conscious Mind
To Motions of the liquid spirit'ous Train,
Thro' previous Traces of the humid Brain;
These, when the Soul by drowsy Sleep oppress'd
Into her private Cell retires to Rest,
Thro' beaten Paths their wand'ring Courses take,
And Images confus'd of things awake.
(ll. 1-14)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "soul" and "cell" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
See Henry Needler, The Works of Mr. Henry Needler (London: J. Watts, 1724). <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
08/17/2005
