"As Love of Pleasure is ordain'd to guard / And feed our bodies, and extend our race; / The Love of Praise is planted to protect / And propagate the glories of the mind."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G. Hawkins
Date
1744
Metaphor
"As Love of Pleasure is ordain'd to guard / And feed our bodies, and extend our race; / The Love of Praise is planted to protect / And propagate the glories of the mind."
Metaphor in Context
Nor absolutely vain is human praise,
When human is supported by Divine.
I'll introduce Lorenzo to himself:
Pleasure and Pride (bad masters) share our hearts.
As Love of Pleasure is ordain'd to guard
And feed our bodies, and extend our race;
The Love of Praise is planted to protect
And propagate the glories of the mind
.
What is it but the Love of Praise inspires,
Matures, refines, embellishes, exalts,
Earth's happiness? From that the delicate,
The grand, the marvellous, of civil life.
Want and Convenience, under-workers, lay
The basis, on which Love of Glory builds.
Nor is thy life, O Virtue! less in debt
To Praise, thy secret stimulating friend.
Were men not proud, what merit should we miss!
Pride made the virtues of the Pagan world.
Praise is the salt that seasons right to man,
And whets his appetite for moral good.
Thirst of Applause is Virtue's second guard;
Reason her first; but Reason wants an aid;
Our private Reason is a flatterer;
Thirst of Applause calls Public Judgment in,
To poise our own, to keep an even scale,
And give endanger'd Virtue fairer play.
(ll. 402-427, p. 189 in CUP edition)
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 Seventh. Being the Second Part of the Infidel Reclaimed. Containing the Nature, Proof, and Importance, of Immortality. (London: Printed for G. Hawkins, 1744).

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
06/12/2013

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