"If Peace hath fled the human kind, / With her the empire of the Mind, For bodies to contend"
— Stevenson, William (1730-1783)
Place of Publication
London
Date
1776, 1778
Metaphor
"If Peace hath fled the human kind, / With her the empire of the Mind, For bodies to contend"
Metaphor in Context
Science, the mistress of all knowledge,
Tho' once, in academic sandals shod,
Confin'd in cells of monkish college,
Yet, thro' the dread immense of time and space,
Furnish'd Omnipotence to trace,
And walk the boundless theatre of God;
Suns her escorters in meridian blaze,
And clouds her chariots flaming with his rays.
But what avails her ken seraphic,
Her eagle eye and eagle pinion,
Her pencil exquisitely graphic,
All Nature's area her dominion;
If Peace hath fled the human kind,
With her the empire of the Mind,
For bodies to contend;
Discord's shrill clarion echoing loud,
Among the selfish, worthless, proud,
Arms! arms!--attack! defend!
The selfish, worthless, proud, still bent
To throw their lines in troubled streams;
With them, by virtue, honour, meant
No more than Bacchanalian dreams:
Kingdoms convuls'd and torn, to them no more
Than seas thrown into tumult on the senseless shore,
Than foliage quiv'ring to the breeze,
Or aguish shake of aspen trees.
Tho' once, in academic sandals shod,
Confin'd in cells of monkish college,
Yet, thro' the dread immense of time and space,
Furnish'd Omnipotence to trace,
And walk the boundless theatre of God;
Suns her escorters in meridian blaze,
And clouds her chariots flaming with his rays.
But what avails her ken seraphic,
Her eagle eye and eagle pinion,
Her pencil exquisitely graphic,
All Nature's area her dominion;
If Peace hath fled the human kind,
With her the empire of the Mind,
For bodies to contend;
Discord's shrill clarion echoing loud,
Among the selfish, worthless, proud,
Arms! arms!--attack! defend!
The selfish, worthless, proud, still bent
To throw their lines in troubled streams;
With them, by virtue, honour, meant
No more than Bacchanalian dreams:
Kingdoms convuls'd and torn, to them no more
Than seas thrown into tumult on the senseless shore,
Than foliage quiv'ring to the breeze,
Or aguish shake of aspen trees.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "empire" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1776, 1778).
See An Ode to Peace: Occasioned by the Present Crisis of the British Empire. Pax Gloria Terrae by William Stevenson, M.D. (Dublin: Printed by Alex. Stuart, in St. Audeon's-Arch, 1776). <Link to ESTC>
Text from An Ode to Peace; Occasioned by the Present Crisis of the British Empire (London: Printed for J. Almon, 1778). <Link to ECCO>
See An Ode to Peace: Occasioned by the Present Crisis of the British Empire. Pax Gloria Terrae by William Stevenson, M.D. (Dublin: Printed by Alex. Stuart, in St. Audeon's-Arch, 1776). <Link to ESTC>
Text from An Ode to Peace; Occasioned by the Present Crisis of the British Empire (London: Printed for J. Almon, 1778). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
08/11/2004
