"But Souls in vain have Reason's Attribute, / If to their Rule they cannot Sense submit. / Hence the Heroick Mind makes no complaint, / But Freedom does enjoy, e'en in Restraint. / When Chains and Fetters do his Body bind, / He then appears more free, and less confin'd."
— Anonymous
Author
Work Title
Date
1679, 1707
Metaphor
"But Souls in vain have Reason's Attribute, / If to their Rule they cannot Sense submit. / Hence the Heroick Mind makes no complaint, / But Freedom does enjoy, e'en in Restraint. / When Chains and Fetters do his Body bind, / He then appears more free, and less confin'd."
Metaphor in Context
Man can no more a native Freedom boast;
That Jewel ne'er was found since first 'twas lost,
'Twas then transported to the Stygian Coast.
But still there's something which we do esteem,
Only because 'tis like the polisht Gem,
And this we Freedom call; its Credit grows
From a false Stamp, the gilded outside shows:
Which avaritious Men attempt to get,
Cheated and ruin'd with the Counterfeit.
Like Children, Soapy-bubbles they pursue,
And the fantastick Vision take for true;
But whilst they think bright Forms they do embrace,
Ixion-like, they find a Cloud i'th' place.
Consent of Crouds exceeding Credit brings,
And seems to stamp Truth's Image on false things;
Not what's a real Good, but what does seem,
Still shares the blind and popular Esteem.
Whilst Sense and Fancy over-rule their Choice,
And Reason in th'Election has no Voice.
But Souls in vain have Reason's Attribute,
If to their Rule they cannot Sense submit.
Hence the Heroick Mind makes no complaint,
But Freedom does enjoy, e'en in Restraint.
When Chains and Fetters do his Body bind,
He then appears more free, and less confined. [...]
(p. 382, ll. 21-45)
That Jewel ne'er was found since first 'twas lost,
'Twas then transported to the Stygian Coast.
But still there's something which we do esteem,
Only because 'tis like the polisht Gem,
And this we Freedom call; its Credit grows
From a false Stamp, the gilded outside shows:
Which avaritious Men attempt to get,
Cheated and ruin'd with the Counterfeit.
Like Children, Soapy-bubbles they pursue,
And the fantastick Vision take for true;
But whilst they think bright Forms they do embrace,
Ixion-like, they find a Cloud i'th' place.
Consent of Crouds exceeding Credit brings,
And seems to stamp Truth's Image on false things;
Not what's a real Good, but what does seem,
Still shares the blind and popular Esteem.
Whilst Sense and Fancy over-rule their Choice,
And Reason in th'Election has no Voice.
But Souls in vain have Reason's Attribute,
If to their Rule they cannot Sense submit.
Hence the Heroick Mind makes no complaint,
But Freedom does enjoy, e'en in Restraint.
When Chains and Fetters do his Body bind,
He then appears more free, and less confined. [...]
(p. 382, ll. 21-45)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in C-H Lion
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1679, 1707).
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
