Custom "wars with Wit for Empire o'er the mind / Fights to the last unknowing how to yield, / And inch by inch disputes the mental field"
— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Strahan
Date
1790
Metaphor
Custom "wars with Wit for Empire o'er the mind / Fights to the last unknowing how to yield, / And inch by inch disputes the mental field"
Metaphor in Context
'Tis difficult from Custom to depart,
She tints the will--she clings about the heart:
Parent of Sorrow--relative of Glee,
The Demon's hope--the Fool's apology--
Oh! Habit, Habit! whither wilt thou lead,
While Fame capriciously upholds thy deed;
Our earliest apothegms her sorc'ries blind,
She wars with Wit for empire o'er the mind;
Fights to the last unknowing how to yield,
And inch by inch disputes the mental field.--
How few, like Russia's Lord, dare burst her chain,
Restrict her step, or regulate her reign;
The godlike Peter, all her force beguil'd,
And drove her 'yond the precincts of the wild;
Bade radiant Science 'mid his desarts rise,
Then gave her volumes to a nation's eyes:
The savage struggles of rude judgment fann'd,
And sent her eel meand'ring through the land.
(pp. 83-4)
She tints the will--she clings about the heart:
Parent of Sorrow--relative of Glee,
The Demon's hope--the Fool's apology--
Oh! Habit, Habit! whither wilt thou lead,
While Fame capriciously upholds thy deed;
Our earliest apothegms her sorc'ries blind,
She wars with Wit for empire o'er the mind;
Fights to the last unknowing how to yield,
And inch by inch disputes the mental field.--
How few, like Russia's Lord, dare burst her chain,
Restrict her step, or regulate her reign;
The godlike Peter, all her force beguil'd,
And drove her 'yond the precincts of the wild;
Bade radiant Science 'mid his desarts rise,
Then gave her volumes to a nation's eyes:
The savage struggles of rude judgment fann'd,
And sent her eel meand'ring through the land.
(pp. 83-4)
Provenance
Searching "empire" and "mind" in HDIS (Poetry
Citation
2 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1790).
See A Postscript to the New Bath Guide. A Poem by Anthony Pasquin. (London: Printed for J. Strahan, 1790). <Link to ECCO>
See A Postscript to the New Bath Guide. A Poem by Anthony Pasquin. (London: Printed for J. Strahan, 1790). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
08/11/2004
