"Their Medly Temper, their amphibious Mind / Is fraught with Principles of every kind; / Nor ever can from Stain and Error free,/ Assert its Native Truth, and Energy."
— Shippen, William (bap. 1673, d. 1743)
Work Title
Date
1705
Metaphor
"Their Medly Temper, their amphibious Mind / Is fraught with Principles of every kind; / Nor ever can from Stain and Error free,/ Assert its Native Truth, and Energy."
Metaphor in Context
A Notion undefin'd in Virtue's Schools,
Unrecommended by her sacred Rules.
A Modern Coward Principle, design'd
To stifle Justice and unnerve the Mind.
A Trick by Knaves contriv'd, impos'd on Fools,
But scorn'd by Patriots and exalted Souls:
For Mod'rate Statesmen, like Camelions, wear
A diff'rent Form in ev'ry diff'rent Air.
They stick at nothing to secure their Ends,
Caress their Enemies, betray their Friends.
Their Medly Temper, their amphibious Mind
Is fraught with Principles of every kind;
Nor ever can from Stain and Error free,
Assert its Native Truth, and Energy.
As the four Elements so blended were
In their first Chaos, so united there,
That since they ne'er could fully be disjoin'd,
Each retains something of each other's kind.
Nor this is wholly Air, nor that pure Flame,
But still in both some Atoms are the same.
(p. 102, ll. 124-143)
Unrecommended by her sacred Rules.
A Modern Coward Principle, design'd
To stifle Justice and unnerve the Mind.
A Trick by Knaves contriv'd, impos'd on Fools,
But scorn'd by Patriots and exalted Souls:
For Mod'rate Statesmen, like Camelions, wear
A diff'rent Form in ev'ry diff'rent Air.
They stick at nothing to secure their Ends,
Caress their Enemies, betray their Friends.
Their Medly Temper, their amphibious Mind
Is fraught with Principles of every kind;
Nor ever can from Stain and Error free,
Assert its Native Truth, and Energy.
As the four Elements so blended were
In their first Chaos, so united there,
That since they ne'er could fully be disjoin'd,
Each retains something of each other's kind.
Nor this is wholly Air, nor that pure Flame,
But still in both some Atoms are the same.
(p. 102, ll. 124-143)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in C-H Lion
Citation
Published in 1705 as Moderation Display'd. A Poem (London: 1705). See <Link to ECCO><Link to Google Books>
Text from Poems on Affairs of State, from 1620. to this Present Year 1707. 4 vols. (London: 1707). <Link to ECCO>
Text from Poems on Affairs of State, from 1620. to this Present Year 1707. 4 vols. (London: 1707). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
07/11/2013
