"This all-pervading, this all-conscious soul, / This particle of energy Divine, / Which travels Nature, flies from star to star, / And visits gods, and emulates their powers, / For ever is extinguish'd"
— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G. Hawkins
Date
1744
Metaphor
"This all-pervading, this all-conscious soul, / This particle of energy Divine, / Which travels Nature, flies from star to star, / And visits gods, and emulates their powers, / For ever is extinguish'd"
Metaphor in Context
"Next moment I may drop from thought, from sense,
"The privilege of angels and of worms,
"An outcast from existence! and this spirit,
"This all-pervading, this all-conscious soul,
"This particle of energy Divine,
"Which travels Nature, flies from star to star,
"And visits gods, and emulates their powers,
"For ever is extinguish'd. Horror! Death!
"Death of that death I fearless once survey'd!
"When horror universal shall descend,
"And Heaven's dark concave urn all human race,
"On that enormous, unrefunding tomb,
"How just this verse, this monumental sigh!"
(ll. 820-832, pp. 199-200 in CUP edition)
"The privilege of angels and of worms,
"An outcast from existence! and this spirit,
"This all-pervading, this all-conscious soul,
"This particle of energy Divine,
"Which travels Nature, flies from star to star,
"And visits gods, and emulates their powers,
"For ever is extinguish'd. Horror! Death!
"Death of that death I fearless once survey'd!
"When horror universal shall descend,
"And Heaven's dark concave urn all human race,
"On that enormous, unrefunding tomb,
"How just this verse, this monumental sigh!"
(ll. 820-832, pp. 199-200 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 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).
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
