"Minds are the Soil, and Precepts are the Seeds: / The richer That, the ranker are the Weeds, / If Weeds it bear: But well repay'd the Toil, / That sows pure Virtue on a fertile Soil."
— Bancks, John (1709-1751)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
James Hodges
Date
1738, 1739
Metaphor
"Minds are the Soil, and Precepts are the Seeds: / The richer That, the ranker are the Weeds, / If Weeds it bear: But well repay'd the Toil, / That sows pure Virtue on a fertile Soil."
Metaphor in Context
Now taught, now teaching, see each fleeting Race
Successive rise, and glitter, and give place!
But mark what diff'rent Lustres they unfold,
Just as the Young are fashion'd by the Old!
Minds are the Soil, and Precepts are the Seeds:
The richer That, the ranker are the Weeds,
If Weeds it bear: But well repay'd the Toil,
That sows pure Virtue on a fertile Soil.
(ll. 39-46, pp. 307-8)
Successive rise, and glitter, and give place!
But mark what diff'rent Lustres they unfold,
Just as the Young are fashion'd by the Old!
Minds are the Soil, and Precepts are the Seeds:
The richer That, the ranker are the Weeds,
If Weeds it bear: But well repay'd the Toil,
That sows pure Virtue on a fertile Soil.
(ll. 39-46, pp. 307-8)
Categories
Provenance
Reading in Google Books
Citation
At least 2 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1738, 1739, 1748, 1752).
See Miscellaneous Works, in Verse and Prose, of John Bancks. Adorned With Sculptures and Illustrated With Notes. (London: printed by T. Aris, in Red-Lyon-Court, Fleet-Street, for the author; and sold by C. Corbett, at Addison’s-Head, over-against St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet-Street; J. Brindley, in New-Bond-Street; Mess. Gilliver and Clarke, in Westminster-Hall; J. James, under the Royal Exchange; Mess. Ward and Chandler, without Temple-Bar; and at their Shops in Coney-Street, York, and at Scarborough Spaw, 1738). <Link to ESTC>
See also Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose of Mr. John Bancks, 2nd ed., vol. I (London: James Hodges, 1739). <Link to Google Books>
See Miscellaneous Works, in Verse and Prose, of John Bancks. Adorned With Sculptures and Illustrated With Notes. (London: printed by T. Aris, in Red-Lyon-Court, Fleet-Street, for the author; and sold by C. Corbett, at Addison’s-Head, over-against St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet-Street; J. Brindley, in New-Bond-Street; Mess. Gilliver and Clarke, in Westminster-Hall; J. James, under the Royal Exchange; Mess. Ward and Chandler, without Temple-Bar; and at their Shops in Coney-Street, York, and at Scarborough Spaw, 1738). <Link to ESTC>
See also Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose of Mr. John Bancks, 2nd ed., vol. I (London: James Hodges, 1739). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
04/10/2012
