Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Of the Use of Riches: An Epistle to the Right Honorable Allen Lord Bathurst [from Moral Essays]

1733, 1736

"The ruling Passion conquers reason still."

All this is madness, cries a sober Sage:
But who, my friend, has reason in his Rage?
"The ruling Passion, be it what it will,
"The ruling Passion conquers reason still.
Less mad the wildest whimsey we can frame,
Than ev'n that passion, if it has no aim;
For tho' such motives folly you may call,
The folly's greater to have none at all.

Government::Rule and Subjection::Rule of Passion War::Conquering

Searching HDIS for "ruling passion"

At least 40 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1733, 1735, 1736, 1739, 1740, 1742, 1743, 1744, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1762, 1764, 1767, 1769, 1770, 1776, 1779, 1780, 1785, 1790, 1800).

See Of the Use of Riches: An Epistle to the Right Honorable Allen Lord Bathurst. By Mr. Pope. (London: printed by J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1732 [1733]). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

Text from The Works of Alexander Pope (London: Printed for B. Lintot, Lawton Gilliver, H. Lintot, L. Gilliver, and J. Clarke, 1736). <Link to LION> [Epistle III. To Allen Bathurst ]

Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope. A One-Volume Edition of the Twickenham Text with Selected Annotations. Ed. John Butt (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).

Ruling Passion

05/25/2004