"The ruling Passion conquers reason still."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)


Date
1733, 1736
Metaphor
"The ruling Passion conquers reason still."
Metaphor in Context
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.
Provenance
Searching HDIS for "ruling passion"
Citation
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).
Theme
Ruling Passion
Date of Entry
05/25/2004

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.