"But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride, / Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain, / Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads, / Or Superstition, with mishapen forms, / Erects its savage empire in the mind."
— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Dodsley
Date
1767, 1784
Metaphor
"But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride, / Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain, / Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads, / Or Superstition, with mishapen forms, / Erects its savage empire in the mind."
Metaphor in Context
See, while the sun gilds, with his golden beam,
Yon' distant pile, which Hyde, with care refin'd,
From plunder guards, its form how beautiful!
Anon some cloud his radiance intercepts,
And all the splendid object fades away.
Or, if some incrustation o'er the sight
Its baleful texture spread, like a clear lens,
With filth obscur'd! no more the sensory,
Thro' the thick film, imbibes the chearful day,
'But cloud instead, and ever-during night
Surround it.' So, when on some weighty truth
A beam of heav'nly light its lustre sheds,
To Reason's eye it looks supremely fair.
But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride,
Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain,
Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads,
Or Superstition, with mishapen forms,
Erects its savage empire in the mind.
Yon' distant pile, which Hyde, with care refin'd,
From plunder guards, its form how beautiful!
Anon some cloud his radiance intercepts,
And all the splendid object fades away.
Or, if some incrustation o'er the sight
Its baleful texture spread, like a clear lens,
With filth obscur'd! no more the sensory,
Thro' the thick film, imbibes the chearful day,
'But cloud instead, and ever-during night
Surround it.' So, when on some weighty truth
A beam of heav'nly light its lustre sheds,
To Reason's eye it looks supremely fair.
But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride,
Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain,
Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads,
Or Superstition, with mishapen forms,
Erects its savage empire in the mind.
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "empire" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 2 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1767, 1784).
See Edge-Hill, or, the Rural Prospect Delineated and Moralized. A Poem. In Four Books. By Richard Jago, A.M. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, 1767). <Link to ESTC>
Text from 2nd edition "Corrected and Enlarged," published in Poems, Moral and Descriptive. By the Late Richard Jago (London: Printed for J. Dodsley 1784). <Link to ECCO>
See Edge-Hill, or, the Rural Prospect Delineated and Moralized. A Poem. In Four Books. By Richard Jago, A.M. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, 1767). <Link to ESTC>
Text from 2nd edition "Corrected and Enlarged," published in Poems, Moral and Descriptive. By the Late Richard Jago (London: Printed for J. Dodsley 1784). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
08/11/2004
