"The artful spring, like the diffusive soul, / Informs the machine, and directs the whole"
— Yalden, Thomas (1670-1736)
Author
Date
1694, 1708
Metaphor
"The artful spring, like the diffusive soul, / Informs the machine, and directs the whole"
Metaphor in Context
Thus from your hand w' admire the globe in small,
A copy fair as its original:
This labour's to the whole creation just,
Second to none, and rival to the first.
The artful spring, like the diffusive soul,
Informs the machine, and directs the whole:
Like Nature's self, it fills the spacious throne,
And unconfin'd sways the fair orbs alone;
Th' unactive parts with awful silence wait,
And from its nod their birth of motion date:
Like Chaos, they obey the powerful call,
Move to its sound, and into measures fall.
A copy fair as its original:
This labour's to the whole creation just,
Second to none, and rival to the first.
The artful spring, like the diffusive soul,
Informs the machine, and directs the whole:
Like Nature's self, it fills the spacious throne,
And unconfin'd sways the fair orbs alone;
Th' unactive parts with awful silence wait,
And from its nod their birth of motion date:
Like Chaos, they obey the powerful call,
Move to its sound, and into measures fall.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "machine" and "soul" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Searching in EEBO-TCP, ECCO, and ESTC (1694, 1708, 1727, 1716, 1779, 1790, 1795, 1800).
First printed in Tonson's miscellany for 1694 (the fourth volume). See The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694 Being the Fourth Part of Miscellany Poems: Containing Great Variety of New Translations and Original Copies. (London: Printed by R.E. for Jacob Tonson, 1694). <Link to EEBO-TCP>
Earliest hit in ECCO is Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1708). <Link to ECCO> See also Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1716). <Link to Google Books>
Yalden's poetry was also collected and reprinted in the Works of the British Poets (London: Printed by E. Cox, [etc.], 1779). <Link to Google Books>.
Text from The Poems of Dr. Yalden (London: Printed for J. Johnson; J. Nichols and Son; R. Baldwin, 1810). <Link to UVa E-Text Center>
First printed in Tonson's miscellany for 1694 (the fourth volume). See The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694 Being the Fourth Part of Miscellany Poems: Containing Great Variety of New Translations and Original Copies. (London: Printed by R.E. for Jacob Tonson, 1694). <Link to EEBO-TCP>
Earliest hit in ECCO is Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1708). <Link to ECCO> See also Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1716). <Link to Google Books>
Yalden's poetry was also collected and reprinted in the Works of the British Poets (London: Printed by E. Cox, [etc.], 1779). <Link to Google Books>.
Text from The Poems of Dr. Yalden (London: Printed for J. Johnson; J. Nichols and Son; R. Baldwin, 1810). <Link to UVa E-Text Center>
Date of Entry
11/21/2006
