"Our senses, as our reason, are Divine. / But for the magic organ's powerful charm, / Earth were a rude, uncolour'd chaos still. / Objects are but the' occasion: ours the' exploit; / Ours is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint, / Which Nature's admirable picture draws, / And beautifies Creation's ample dome."
— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
R. Dodsley
Date
1744
Metaphor
"Our senses, as our reason, are Divine. / But for the magic organ's powerful charm, / Earth were a rude, uncolour'd chaos still. / Objects are but the' occasion: ours the' exploit; / Ours is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint, / Which Nature's admirable picture draws, / And beautifies Creation's ample dome."
Metaphor in Context
With error in ambition justly charged,
Find we Lorenzo wiser in his wealth?
What, if thy rental I reform, and draw
An inventory new to set thee right?
Where thy true treasure? Gold says, "Not in me;"
And, "Not in me," the diamond. Gold is poor;
India's insolvent: seek it in thyself;
Seek in thy naked self, and find it there;
In being so descended, form'd, endow'd;
Sky-born, sky-guided, sky-returning race!
Erect, immortal, rational, Divine!
In senses, which inherit earth and heavens;
Enjoy the various riches Nature yields;
Far nobler! give the riches they enjoy;
Give taste to fruits, and harmony to groves,
Their radiant beams to gold, and gold's bright sire;
Take-in, at once, the landscape of the world,
At a small inlet, which a grain might close,
And half-create the wondrous world they see.
Our senses, as our reason, are Divine.
But for the magic organ's powerful charm,
Earth were a rude, uncolour'd chaos still.
Objects are but the' occasion: ours the' exploit;
Ours is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint,
Which Nature's admirable picture draws,
And beautifies Creation's ample dome.
Like Milton's Eve, when gazing on the lake,
Man makes the matchless image man admires.
Say then, shall man, his thoughts all sent abroad,
(Superior wonders in himself forgot,)
His admiration waste on objects round,
When Heaven makes him the soul of all he sees?
Absurd, not rare! so great, so mean, is man!
(ll. 409-441, pp. 159-60 in CUP edition)
Find we Lorenzo wiser in his wealth?
What, if thy rental I reform, and draw
An inventory new to set thee right?
Where thy true treasure? Gold says, "Not in me;"
And, "Not in me," the diamond. Gold is poor;
India's insolvent: seek it in thyself;
Seek in thy naked self, and find it there;
In being so descended, form'd, endow'd;
Sky-born, sky-guided, sky-returning race!
Erect, immortal, rational, Divine!
In senses, which inherit earth and heavens;
Enjoy the various riches Nature yields;
Far nobler! give the riches they enjoy;
Give taste to fruits, and harmony to groves,
Their radiant beams to gold, and gold's bright sire;
Take-in, at once, the landscape of the world,
At a small inlet, which a grain might close,
And half-create the wondrous world they see.
Our senses, as our reason, are Divine.
But for the magic organ's powerful charm,
Earth were a rude, uncolour'd chaos still.
Objects are but the' occasion: ours the' exploit;
Ours is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint,
Which Nature's admirable picture draws,
And beautifies Creation's ample dome.
Like Milton's Eve, when gazing on the lake,
Man makes the matchless image man admires.
Say then, shall man, his thoughts all sent abroad,
(Superior wonders in himself forgot,)
His admiration waste on objects round,
When Heaven makes him the soul of all he sees?
Absurd, not rare! so great, so mean, is man!
(ll. 409-441, pp. 159-60 in CUP edition)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Uniform title published in 9 volumes, from 1742 to 1745. At least 133 reprintings after 1745 in ESTC (1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1755, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800).
Edward Young, Night the Sixth. The Infidel Reclaim'd. In Two Parts. Containing, The Nature, Proof, and Importance of Immortality. Part the First. Where, among other things, Glory, and Riches, are particularly consider'd. Humbly Inscrib'd to the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. (London: R. Dodsley, 1744). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D., 2 vols. (London: William Tegg, 1854). <Link to Google Books>
Reading Edward Young, Night Thoughts, ed. Stephen Cornford (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989).
Edward Young, Night the Sixth. The Infidel Reclaim'd. In Two Parts. Containing, The Nature, Proof, and Importance of Immortality. Part the First. Where, among other things, Glory, and Riches, are particularly consider'd. Humbly Inscrib'd to the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. (London: R. Dodsley, 1744). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D., 2 vols. (London: William Tegg, 1854). <Link to Google Books>
Reading Edward Young, Night Thoughts, ed. Stephen Cornford (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989).
Date of Entry
06/11/2013
