"For oft, their due degrees / Abandon'd, one essential ev'n excludes / The rest; or argument, perhaps, usurps / The throne of pathos; or the passions, free / From previous forms, as great emergence calls, / Burst on a CATILINE's devoted head / Impetuous."
— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Cadell, and Sold by C. Dilly, and G. G. J. and J. Robinson
Date
1792
Metaphor
"For oft, their due degrees / Abandon'd, one essential ev'n excludes / The rest; or argument, perhaps, usurps / The throne of pathos; or the passions, free / From previous forms, as great emergence calls, / Burst on a CATILINE's devoted head / Impetuous."
Metaphor in Context
Thus, then, the essentials hath the muse unveil'd
Perceptive:--Studious thou, meanwhile, to trace
Their union and their order, as thy sphere
And genius of the just oration wills;
Except where versatile occasion's turn,
Or sudden impulse of thy audience points
A devious course. For oft, their due degrees
Abandon'd, one essential ev'n excludes
The rest; or argument, perhaps, usurps
The throne of pathos; or the passions, free
From previous forms, as great emergence calls,
Burst on a CATILINE's devoted head
Impetuous. Thus, my liberal youth, thy art
Uunravelled and illustrated, erelong
Shall bid thee seize the moments to persuade,
Soon as thy persevering practice adds
To knowledge, vigor; and to nervous strength
Adroit activity. And now survey
The high importance of persuasion's power--
The power of human conduct! Awful trust!
Yet haply thine! And O! if doom'd to guide,
Blest arbiter of good, the moral scale;
Whether thy care to vindicate the rights
Of outrag'd innocence, and crush the fiends
That weave the specious artifice; or stem,
In evil hour, corruption's torrent tide;
Or shine the sacred delegate of heaven;
O! be thy study to impress on all
The features of thy honest worth, and gain
The fame of virtue! Hence persuasion draws
New dignity and grace! Attention hangs
Enamour'd, on the music of a voice
Inspir'd by genuine probity; and breath'd
From unaffected goodness! Charms, like these,
Are virtue's!--Yet her semblance, uninform'd
By the warm heart, how vain! O feed the fires
That glow in generous bosoms! Be thy care
To give each exemplary deed the force
Of truth, and plain sincerity of soul!
For there's an energy in conscious worth--
A noble daring that excites the flame
Of emulative merit, spreads around
A kindred feeling, and impels the mind
To all that high activity, the source
Of happiest execution. Such the fire
Of ancient days, while Greece survey'd her sons
Crown'd, awful victors, with the double wreath
Of eloquence and virtue! With an eye
Prophetic of its quick-rekindling beams,
Thy Albion to effulgent glory weaves
That wreath: And--"Be it thine, (she raptur'd cries)
"Auspicious youth, to nobler deeds foredoom'd,
"To merit all the renovated rays;
"And, thus, reflected from thy brighter brows,
"Beyond the boast of Greece be Albion's fame!"
Perceptive:--Studious thou, meanwhile, to trace
Their union and their order, as thy sphere
And genius of the just oration wills;
Except where versatile occasion's turn,
Or sudden impulse of thy audience points
A devious course. For oft, their due degrees
Abandon'd, one essential ev'n excludes
The rest; or argument, perhaps, usurps
The throne of pathos; or the passions, free
From previous forms, as great emergence calls,
Burst on a CATILINE's devoted head
Impetuous. Thus, my liberal youth, thy art
Uunravelled and illustrated, erelong
Shall bid thee seize the moments to persuade,
Soon as thy persevering practice adds
To knowledge, vigor; and to nervous strength
Adroit activity. And now survey
The high importance of persuasion's power--
The power of human conduct! Awful trust!
Yet haply thine! And O! if doom'd to guide,
Blest arbiter of good, the moral scale;
Whether thy care to vindicate the rights
Of outrag'd innocence, and crush the fiends
That weave the specious artifice; or stem,
In evil hour, corruption's torrent tide;
Or shine the sacred delegate of heaven;
O! be thy study to impress on all
The features of thy honest worth, and gain
The fame of virtue! Hence persuasion draws
New dignity and grace! Attention hangs
Enamour'd, on the music of a voice
Inspir'd by genuine probity; and breath'd
From unaffected goodness! Charms, like these,
Are virtue's!--Yet her semblance, uninform'd
By the warm heart, how vain! O feed the fires
That glow in generous bosoms! Be thy care
To give each exemplary deed the force
Of truth, and plain sincerity of soul!
For there's an energy in conscious worth--
A noble daring that excites the flame
Of emulative merit, spreads around
A kindred feeling, and impels the mind
To all that high activity, the source
Of happiest execution. Such the fire
Of ancient days, while Greece survey'd her sons
Crown'd, awful victors, with the double wreath
Of eloquence and virtue! With an eye
Prophetic of its quick-rekindling beams,
Thy Albion to effulgent glory weaves
That wreath: And--"Be it thine, (she raptur'd cries)
"Auspicious youth, to nobler deeds foredoom'd,
"To merit all the renovated rays;
"And, thus, reflected from thy brighter brows,
"Beyond the boast of Greece be Albion's fame!"
Categories
Provenance
Searching "passion" and "throne" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1792).
See Richard Polewhele, ed. Poems, Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall., 2 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1792). <Link to ECCO>
See Richard Polewhele, ed. Poems, Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall., 2 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1792). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
01/26/2006
