"Vanity is a shoot from self-love--and self-love, Pope declares to be the spring of motion in the human breast."
— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Nichols
Date
1782
Metaphor
"Vanity is a shoot from self-love--and self-love, Pope declares to be the spring of motion in the human breast."
Metaphor in Context
Do not you condemn me for the very thing that you are guilty of yourself;--but before I recriminate--let me be grateful, and acknowledge that heart-felt satisfaction which I ever feel from the praise of the good.--Sterne says--every worthy mind loves praise--and declares that he loves it too--but then it must be sincere.--Now I protest that you have something very like flattery;--no matter--I honestly own it pleases me--Vanity is a shoot from self-love--and self-love, Pope declares to be the spring of motion in the human breast.--Friendship founded upon right judgement takes the good and bad with the indulgence of blind love;--nor is it wrong--for as weakness and error is the lot of humanity--real friendship must oft kindly overlook the undesigning frailties of undisguised nature.--My dear Madam, I beg ten thousand pardons for the dull sermon I have been preaching:--you may well yawn.--So the noble! the humane! the patron! the friend! the good Duke leaves Tunbridge on Monday--true nobility will leave the place with him--and kindness and humanity will accompany Miss L---- whenever she thinks fit to leave it.--Mrs. Sancho is pretty well, pretty round, and pretty tame!--she bids me say, Thank you, in the kindest manner I possibly can--and observe, I say, Thank you kindly.--I will not pretend to enumerate the many things you deserve our thanks for:--you are upon the whole an estimable young woman--your heart is the best part of you--may it meet with its likeness in the man of your choice!--and I will pronounce you happy couple.--I hope to hear in your next--(that is, if--) that you are about thinking of coming to town--no news stirring but politics--which I deem very unfit for ladies.--I shall conclude with John Moody's prayer--"The goodness of goodness bless and preserve you!"--I am dear Miss L----'s most sincere servant and friend, [...]
(I.ix, pp. 30-2; pp. 40-1 in Carretta)
(I.ix, pp. 30-2; pp. 40-1 in Carretta)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; text from DocSouth
Citation
Five entries in ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784). [Second edition in 1783, third in 1784.]
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
Date of Entry
07/11/2013
