"These chronic Passions, while from real woes / They rise, and yet without the body's fault / Infest the soul, admit one only cure; / Diversion, hurry, and a restless life."
— Armstrong, John (1708/9-1779)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1744, 1770
Metaphor
"These chronic Passions, while from real woes / They rise, and yet without the body's fault / Infest the soul, admit one only cure; / Diversion, hurry, and a restless life."
Metaphor in Context
Oft from the Body, by long ails mistun'd,
These evils sprung the most important health,
That of the Mind, destroy: and when the mind
They first invade, the conscious body soon
In sympathetic languishment declines.
These chronic Passions, while from real woes
They rise, and yet without the body's fault
Infest the soul, admit one only cure;
Diversion, hurry, and a restless life.
Vain are the consolations of the wise;
In vain your friends would reason down your pain.
O ye, whose souls relentless love has tam'd
To soft distress, or friends untimely fal'n!
Court not the luxury of tender thought;
Nor deem it impious to forget those pains
That hurt the living, nought avail the dead.
Go, soft enthusiast! quit the cypress groves,
Nor to the rivulet's lonely moanings tune
Your sad complaint. Go, seek the chearful haunts
Of men, and mingle with the bustling croud;
Lay schemes for wealth, or power, or same, the wish
Of nobler minds, and push them night and day.
Or join the caravan in quest of scenes
New to your eyes, and shifting every hour,
Beyond the Alps, beyond the Apennines.
Or more advent'rous, rush into the field
Where war grows hot; and, raging thro' the sky,
The lofty trumpet swells the madd'ning soul:
And in the hardy camp and toilsome march
Forget all softer and less manly cares.
These evils sprung the most important health,
That of the Mind, destroy: and when the mind
They first invade, the conscious body soon
In sympathetic languishment declines.
These chronic Passions, while from real woes
They rise, and yet without the body's fault
Infest the soul, admit one only cure;
Diversion, hurry, and a restless life.
Vain are the consolations of the wise;
In vain your friends would reason down your pain.
O ye, whose souls relentless love has tam'd
To soft distress, or friends untimely fal'n!
Court not the luxury of tender thought;
Nor deem it impious to forget those pains
That hurt the living, nought avail the dead.
Go, soft enthusiast! quit the cypress groves,
Nor to the rivulet's lonely moanings tune
Your sad complaint. Go, seek the chearful haunts
Of men, and mingle with the bustling croud;
Lay schemes for wealth, or power, or same, the wish
Of nobler minds, and push them night and day.
Or join the caravan in quest of scenes
New to your eyes, and shifting every hour,
Beyond the Alps, beyond the Apennines.
Or more advent'rous, rush into the field
Where war grows hot; and, raging thro' the sky,
The lofty trumpet swells the madd'ning soul:
And in the hardy camp and toilsome march
Forget all softer and less manly cares.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 34 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1744, 1745, 1747, 1748, 1754, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1774, 1786, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797). Found in The Works of the English Poets (1790) and Roach's Beauties of the Modern Poets (1793).
See The Art of Preserving Health: a Poem. (London: Printed for A. Millar, opposite to Katharine-Street in the Strand, 1744). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Miscellanies; by John Armstrong, M.D. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, (successor to Mr. Millar) in the Strand, 1770). <Link to ESTC>
See The Art of Preserving Health: a Poem. (London: Printed for A. Millar, opposite to Katharine-Street in the Strand, 1744). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Miscellanies; by John Armstrong, M.D. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, (successor to Mr. Millar) in the Strand, 1770). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
05/04/2005
