Reason may rule the breast
— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Place of Publication
London
Date
1763
Metaphor
Reason may rule the breast
Metaphor in Context
Once, be the hour accursed, accursed the place!
I ventured to blaspheme the chosen race.
Into those traps, which men, call'd patriots, laid,
By specious arts unwarily betray'd,
Madly I leagued against that sacred earth,
Vile parricide! which gave a parent birth:
But shall I meanly error's path pursue,
When heavenly truth presents her friendly clue?
Once plunged in ill, shall I go farther in?
To make the oath, was rash: to keep it, sin.
Backward I tread the paths I trod before,
And calm reflection hates what passion swore.
Converted, (blessed are the souls which know
Those pleasures which from true conversion flow,
Whether to reason, who now rules my breast,
Or to pure faith, like Lyttelton and West)
Past crimes to expiate, be my present aim
To raise new trophies to the Scottish name;
To make (what can the proudest Muse do more?)
E'en faction's sons her brighter worth adore;
To make her glories stamp'd with honest rhymes,
In fullest tide roll down to latest times.
I ventured to blaspheme the chosen race.
Into those traps, which men, call'd patriots, laid,
By specious arts unwarily betray'd,
Madly I leagued against that sacred earth,
Vile parricide! which gave a parent birth:
But shall I meanly error's path pursue,
When heavenly truth presents her friendly clue?
Once plunged in ill, shall I go farther in?
To make the oath, was rash: to keep it, sin.
Backward I tread the paths I trod before,
And calm reflection hates what passion swore.
Converted, (blessed are the souls which know
Those pleasures which from true conversion flow,
Whether to reason, who now rules my breast,
Or to pure faith, like Lyttelton and West)
Past crimes to expiate, be my present aim
To raise new trophies to the Scottish name;
To make (what can the proudest Muse do more?)
E'en faction's sons her brighter worth adore;
To make her glories stamp'd with honest rhymes,
In fullest tide roll down to latest times.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "rule" and "reason" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 6 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1780, 1783, 1790, 1800).
See The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Pastoral. By C. Churchill. Inscribed to John Wilkes, Esq. (London : printed for the author, and sold by G. Kearsly, in Ludgate-Street, 1763). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems of Charles Churchill: ed. James Laver ([London]: The King's Printers, 1933). <Link to LION>
See The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Pastoral. By C. Churchill. Inscribed to John Wilkes, Esq. (London : printed for the author, and sold by G. Kearsly, in Ludgate-Street, 1763). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems of Charles Churchill: ed. James Laver ([London]: The King's Printers, 1933). <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
06/15/2004
