"Hail, mild Philosophy! the province thine, / To chase the spectres of the dark Divine! / Not to fix errour, but with reason's art, / To root the stiff old-woman from the heart."
— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)
Work Title
Date
1773, 1810
Metaphor
"Hail, mild Philosophy! the province thine, / To chase the spectres of the dark Divine! / Not to fix errour, but with reason's art, / To root the stiff old-woman from the heart."
Metaphor in Context
Hail, mild Philosophy! the province thine,
To chase the spectres of the dark Divine!
Not to fix errour, but with reason's art,
To root the stiff old-woman from the heart.
'Tis to thy calm investigation given
To reconcile to man the ways of Heaven;
To teach us to subdue the zealot's fire,
Nor rashly to detest, nor to admire;
Serenely to reject, and to approve,
Give vice our pity, virtue all our love;
By Bethlehem's candid star our course to steer,
Benign to others, to ourselves severe!
To chase the spectres of the dark Divine!
Not to fix errour, but with reason's art,
To root the stiff old-woman from the heart.
'Tis to thy calm investigation given
To reconcile to man the ways of Heaven;
To teach us to subdue the zealot's fire,
Nor rashly to detest, nor to admire;
Serenely to reject, and to approve,
Give vice our pity, virtue all our love;
By Bethlehem's candid star our course to steer,
Benign to others, to ourselves severe!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "thought" and "impression" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1773).
Text from The Poetical Works of Percival Stockdale. 2 vols. (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and W. Clarke, By W. Pople, 1810).
See The Poet. A Poem. (London : printed for W. Flexney, opposite Gray’s-Inn-Gate, Holborn, 1773). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Poetical Works of Percival Stockdale. 2 vols. (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and W. Clarke, By W. Pople, 1810).
See The Poet. A Poem. (London : printed for W. Flexney, opposite Gray’s-Inn-Gate, Holborn, 1773). <Link to ESTC>
Theme
Lockean Philosophy
Date of Entry
05/20/2005
