"E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined, / Can make the happy man, without the mind; / Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys / The chain of reason with unerring gaze; / Where fancy lives, and to the brightening eyes, / His fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise; / Where social love exerts her soft command, / And plays the passions with a tender hand, / Whence every virtue flows, in rival strife, / And all the moral harmony of life."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1729
Metaphor
"E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined, / Can make the happy man, without the mind; / Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys / The chain of reason with unerring gaze; / Where fancy lives, and to the brightening eyes, / His fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise; / Where social love exerts her soft command, / And plays the passions with a tender hand, / Whence every virtue flows, in rival strife, / And all the moral harmony of life."
Metaphor in Context
He's not the happy man, to whom is given
A plenteous fortune by indulgent Heaven;
Whose gilded roofs on shining columns rise,
And painted walls enchant the gazer's eyes:
Whose table flows with hospitable cheer,
And all the various bounty of the year;
Whose valleys smile, whose gardens breathe the spring,
Whose carved mountains bleat, and forests sing?
For whom the cooling shade in summer twines,
While his full cellars give their generous wines;
From whose wide fields unbounded autumn pours
A golden tide into his swelling stores:
Whose winter laughs; for whom the liberal gales
Stretch the big sheet, and toiling commerce sails;
When yielding crowds attend, and pleasure serves;
While youth, and health, and vigour string his nerves.
E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined,
Can make the happy man, without the mind;
Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys
The chain of reason with unerring gaze;
Where fancy lives, and to the brightening eyes,
His fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise;
Where social love exerts her soft command,
And plays the passions with a tender hand,
Whence every virtue flows, in rival strife,
And all the moral harmony of life.
Nor canst thou, D--D----N, this truth decline,
Thine is the fortune, and the mind is thine.
(ll. 1-28, pp. 284-5)
A plenteous fortune by indulgent Heaven;
Whose gilded roofs on shining columns rise,
And painted walls enchant the gazer's eyes:
Whose table flows with hospitable cheer,
And all the various bounty of the year;
Whose valleys smile, whose gardens breathe the spring,
Whose carved mountains bleat, and forests sing?
For whom the cooling shade in summer twines,
While his full cellars give their generous wines;
From whose wide fields unbounded autumn pours
A golden tide into his swelling stores:
Whose winter laughs; for whom the liberal gales
Stretch the big sheet, and toiling commerce sails;
When yielding crowds attend, and pleasure serves;
While youth, and health, and vigour string his nerves.
E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined,
Can make the happy man, without the mind;
Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys
The chain of reason with unerring gaze;
Where fancy lives, and to the brightening eyes,
His fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise;
Where social love exerts her soft command,
And plays the passions with a tender hand,
Whence every virtue flows, in rival strife,
And all the moral harmony of life.
Nor canst thou, D--D----N, this truth decline,
Thine is the fortune, and the mind is thine.
(ll. 1-28, pp. 284-5)
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 6 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1729, 1730, 1743, 1748, 1779, 1790)
First printed in Ralph's Miscellany and reprinted to be bound up with The Seasons. Also printed in Dodsley's Collection of Poems (1748), iii. 321-2. Omitted from later editions and from Thomson's Works. Appears in Johnson's Works of the English Poets (1779), xlix. 184 (and again in 1790).
See Miscellaneous Poems, by Several Hands: Particularly The D--- of W---n, Sir Samuel Garth, Dean S-, Mr. John Hughes, Mr. Thomson, Mrs. C-r. Publish'd by Mr. Ralph. (London: Printed by C. Ackers, for W. Meadows at the Angel in Cornhill; J. Batley at the Dove in Paternoster-Row; T. Cox at the Lamb under the Royal-Exchange; S. Billingsley at the Judge's Head in Chancery-Lane; R. Hett at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry near Cheapside; and J. Gray at the Cross-Keys in the Poultry, 1729). <Link to ECCO>
Reading James Thomson, Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems, ed. James Sambrook (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
First printed in Ralph's Miscellany and reprinted to be bound up with The Seasons. Also printed in Dodsley's Collection of Poems (1748), iii. 321-2. Omitted from later editions and from Thomson's Works. Appears in Johnson's Works of the English Poets (1779), xlix. 184 (and again in 1790).
See Miscellaneous Poems, by Several Hands: Particularly The D--- of W---n, Sir Samuel Garth, Dean S-, Mr. John Hughes, Mr. Thomson, Mrs. C-r. Publish'd by Mr. Ralph. (London: Printed by C. Ackers, for W. Meadows at the Angel in Cornhill; J. Batley at the Dove in Paternoster-Row; T. Cox at the Lamb under the Royal-Exchange; S. Billingsley at the Judge's Head in Chancery-Lane; R. Hett at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry near Cheapside; and J. Gray at the Cross-Keys in the Poultry, 1729). <Link to ECCO>
Reading James Thomson, Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems, ed. James Sambrook (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
Date of Entry
12/01/2003
