"The passions are a num'rous crowd, / Imperious, positive, and loud: / Curb these licentious sons of strife; / Hence chiefly rise the storms of life: / If they grow mutinous, and rave, / They are thy masters, thou their slave."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1751, 1791
Metaphor
"The passions are a num'rous crowd, / Imperious, positive, and loud: / Curb these licentious sons of strife; / Hence chiefly rise the storms of life: / If they grow mutinous, and rave, / They are thy masters, thou their slave."
Metaphor in Context
The passions are a num'rous crowd,
Imperious, positive, and loud:
Curb these licentious sons of strife;
Hence chiefly rise the storms of life:
If they grow mutinous, and rave,
They are thy masters, thou their slave.
(Cf. p. 49 in 1751 ed. [p. 51 in 2nd ed.])
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry); found again searching "passion" and "crowd" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO.
Citation
At least 20 entries in ESTC (1751, 1752, 1753, 1755, 1760, 1767, 1771, 1776, 1781, 1782, 1786, 1787, 1790, 1794, 1798).

Text from Various Pieces in Verse and Prose, 2 vols. (London: J. Dodsley, 1791). <Link to Google Books>

See also Nathaniel Cotton, Visions in Verse, for the Entertainment and Instruction of Younger Minds. 2nd edition (London: Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and Sold by M. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-Noster Row, 1751). <Link to ECCO><Link to 2nd edition>

See also Visions in Verse: For the Entertainment and Instruction of Younger Minds. A New Edition. (London: J. Dodsley, 1790). <Link to Google Books>

The revised and enlarged 3rd edition adds a new, ninth vision: "Death. Vision the Last"
Theme
Rule of Passion
Date of Entry
07/14/2010

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.