"True to the clear, unbiast, humble soul, / Which trembling seeks her, as the steel its pole!"
— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1735
Metaphor
"True to the clear, unbiast, humble soul, / Which trembling seeks her, as the steel its pole!"
Metaphor in Context
Not that my verse Right Reason would controll,
True Freedom limit, or contract the Soul;
Th'exchange were one to bigotry from pride,
A hairs-breath serves to join them, or divide;
Yet proper decencies must still be had,
Not meanly tim'rous we, nor vainly mad:
Reason, like Israel, Horeb's place descries,
But if she gazes wantonly, she dies:
If well-attemper'd, her ethereal light
Will fix our slippery steps, and gild our night:
Or else at most we run a rash career,
Or fare like pilots, who by meteors steer;
For, like a mark she's faithful to the view,
But just as distance, force, and aim are true:
Then guide, and judge, and guardian of our ways,
Test of our deeds, and umpire of our praise,
Source of our joy, and bound'ry of our grief,
Anchor of hope, and pilot of belief!
True to the clear, unbiast, humble soul,
Which trembling seeks her, as the steel its pole!
True Freedom limit, or contract the Soul;
Th'exchange were one to bigotry from pride,
A hairs-breath serves to join them, or divide;
Yet proper decencies must still be had,
Not meanly tim'rous we, nor vainly mad:
Reason, like Israel, Horeb's place descries,
But if she gazes wantonly, she dies:
If well-attemper'd, her ethereal light
Will fix our slippery steps, and gild our night:
Or else at most we run a rash career,
Or fare like pilots, who by meteors steer;
For, like a mark she's faithful to the view,
But just as distance, force, and aim are true:
Then guide, and judge, and guardian of our ways,
Test of our deeds, and umpire of our praise,
Source of our joy, and bound'ry of our grief,
Anchor of hope, and pilot of belief!
True to the clear, unbiast, humble soul,
Which trembling seeks her, as the steel its pole!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "soul" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
5 entries in ESTC (1735, 1736).
Text from Walter Harte, An Essay on Reason, 3rd ed., corr. (London: Printed for J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver, 1736). <Link to LION>
See also An Essay on Reason (London: Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1735). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Walter Harte, An Essay on Reason, 3rd ed., corr. (London: Printed for J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver, 1736). <Link to LION>
See also An Essay on Reason (London: Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1735). <Link to ESTC>
Theme
Magnetism
Date of Entry
06/12/2005
