"And hence one Master Passion in the breast, / Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Date
1733-4
Metaphor
"And hence one Master Passion in the breast, / Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."
Metaphor in Context
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes,
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise;
Present to grasp, and future still to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike ,
On diff'rent Senses diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent Passions more or less inflame,
As strong, or weak, the organs of the frame;
And hence one Master Passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
(Epistle II, ll. 123-32; cf. pp. 28-9 in ECCO-TCP ed.)
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise;
Present to grasp, and future still to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike ,
On diff'rent Senses diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent Passions more or less inflame,
As strong, or weak, the organs of the frame;
And hence one Master Passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
(Epistle II, ll. 123-32; cf. pp. 28-9 in ECCO-TCP ed.)
Provenance
HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO-TCP.
Citation
Over 165 entries in ESTC (1733, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1743, 1744, 1745, 1746, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1780, 1781, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800).
See An Essay on Man, Being the First Book of Ethic epistles. To Henry St. John, L. Bolingbroke. (London: Printed by John Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1734). <Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also An Essay on Man: In Epistles to a Friend. (Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for George Risk, George Ewing, and William Smith, 1734). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
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).
See An Essay on Man, Being the First Book of Ethic epistles. To Henry St. John, L. Bolingbroke. (London: Printed by John Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1734). <Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also An Essay on Man: In Epistles to a Friend. (Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for George Risk, George Ewing, and William Smith, 1734). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
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
11/04/2003
