"Reason's Sovereign-Rule" may be denied (by Faith)
— Nugent, Robert [or Craggs] (1702-1788)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Becket,
Date
1774
Metaphor
"Reason's Sovereign-Rule" may be denied (by Faith)
Metaphor in Context
Tenets with such Wonders fraught,
Far beyond the Reach of Thought,
Link'd with Laws, whose rig'rous Plan
Checks th' aspiring Pride of Man,
Stints the darling Joys of Sense,
Lost in rigid Abstinence,
Points to Paths with Thorns bespread,
Far remov'd from Pleasure's Bed,
Leading to a distant Prize,
Past the Ken of human Eyes,
Reason's Sovereign-Rule deny'd,
Senses, Passions, mortify'd,
In a plain and simple Tale,
Ill constructed to prevail,
With no Eloquence to draw,
Nor Authority to awe,
Yet by Earth's first Pow'rs receiv'd,
And by Learning's Lights believ'd,
Reconciling what before
Mock'd the Sophist's baffled Lore,
Yet that Purpose undesign'd
'Scap'd the rustick Teachers' Mind,
Who, the subtle Schools unknown,
Knew no Doctrines but their own;
Nor in Rolls of Grecian Fame,
Reads an Epicurus' Name:
These are Stamps by Heav'n imprest,
Truth's inimitable Test.
Far beyond the Reach of Thought,
Link'd with Laws, whose rig'rous Plan
Checks th' aspiring Pride of Man,
Stints the darling Joys of Sense,
Lost in rigid Abstinence,
Points to Paths with Thorns bespread,
Far remov'd from Pleasure's Bed,
Leading to a distant Prize,
Past the Ken of human Eyes,
Reason's Sovereign-Rule deny'd,
Senses, Passions, mortify'd,
In a plain and simple Tale,
Ill constructed to prevail,
With no Eloquence to draw,
Nor Authority to awe,
Yet by Earth's first Pow'rs receiv'd,
And by Learning's Lights believ'd,
Reconciling what before
Mock'd the Sophist's baffled Lore,
Yet that Purpose undesign'd
'Scap'd the rustick Teachers' Mind,
Who, the subtle Schools unknown,
Knew no Doctrines but their own;
Nor in Rolls of Grecian Fame,
Reads an Epicurus' Name:
These are Stamps by Heav'n imprest,
Truth's inimitable Test.
Provenance
Searching "rule" and "reason" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
2 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1774).
See Faith. A Poem. (London: Printed for T. Becket, the Corner of the Adelphi, in the Strand, 1774). <Link to ESTC>
See Faith. A Poem. (London: Printed for T. Becket, the Corner of the Adelphi, in the Strand, 1774). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/21/2004
