"The Thinking Faculty, its source, its pow'rs: / How, stretch'd like Kneller's canvas first it lies / 'Ere the soft tints awake, or outlines rise / How, till the Finishing of thrice sev'n years, / The Master-Figure Reason scarce appears."
— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1735
Metaphor
"The Thinking Faculty, its source, its pow'rs: / How, stretch'd like Kneller's canvas first it lies / 'Ere the soft tints awake, or outlines rise / How, till the Finishing of thrice sev'n years, / The Master-Figure Reason scarce appears."
Metaphor in Context
Science like this, important and divine,
The good man offers Reason, at thy shrine.
Sees Thee, Truth, Nature, (well explain'd) the same:
Not chang'd when thought on, varying but in name;
Sees whence each aptitude, each diff'rence springs,
How thought ev'n acts and meaning lives in things:
Or else examines at less studious hours
The Thinking Faculty, its source, its pow'rs:
How, stretch'd like Kneller's canvas first it lies,
'Ere the soft tints awake, or outlines rise:
How, till the Finishing of thrice sev'n years,
The Master-Figure Reason scarce appears:
Sighs to survey a Realm by right its own,
While Passion, [fierce co-heir] usurps the throne;
A second Nero, turbulent in sway,
His Pleasure, Noise; his Life one stormy Day;
Headstrong in love, and headstrong too in hate,
Resolv'd t'enslave the Mob, or sink the State;
Sad farce of pow'r, sad anarchy of things,
Where brutes are subjects, and where tyrants kings.
(pp. 10-1, ll. 210-229)
The good man offers Reason, at thy shrine.
Sees Thee, Truth, Nature, (well explain'd) the same:
Not chang'd when thought on, varying but in name;
Sees whence each aptitude, each diff'rence springs,
How thought ev'n acts and meaning lives in things:
Or else examines at less studious hours
The Thinking Faculty, its source, its pow'rs:
How, stretch'd like Kneller's canvas first it lies,
'Ere the soft tints awake, or outlines rise:
How, till the Finishing of thrice sev'n years,
The Master-Figure Reason scarce appears:
Sighs to survey a Realm by right its own,
While Passion, [fierce co-heir] usurps the throne;
A second Nero, turbulent in sway,
His Pleasure, Noise; his Life one stormy Day;
Headstrong in love, and headstrong too in hate,
Resolv'd t'enslave the Mob, or sink the State;
Sad farce of pow'r, sad anarchy of things,
Where brutes are subjects, and where tyrants kings.
(pp. 10-1, ll. 210-229)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry); found again reading Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 138.
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
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
01/25/2006
