"To live without Restraint, is to live indeed, cry'd she, and I no longer wonder, that the free Mind finds it so difficult to yield to those Fetters, Priests and Philosophers would bind it in, and which were never forged by, nor are consistent with Reason."
— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for S. Baker
Date
1736
Metaphor
"To live without Restraint, is to live indeed, cry'd she, and I no longer wonder, that the free Mind finds it so difficult to yield to those Fetters, Priests and Philosophers would bind it in, and which were never forged by, nor are consistent with Reason."
Metaphor in Context
With such-like Discourses, he brought her to believe, that every thing was Virtue in the Great, and Vice confined to those in low Life. As there is no Sentiment more flattering to human Nature, than that of being above Controul; there requires but few Arguments to convince us of what we wish. Eovaai, in an Instant, became so wholly abandon'd to this pernicious Doctrine, that she thought all the Time lost, which she had spent in endeavouring to subdue her Passions, and the Pains she had been at for that purpose, an Injustice to herself. -- Not all the Principles of Religion and Morality, given her by Eojaeu, not a long Habitude of Virtue, nor the natural Modesty of her Sex, had power to stem the Torrent of Libertinism, that now o'er-whelm'd her Soul. To live without Restraint, is to live indeed, cry'd she, and I no longer wonder, that the free Mind finds it so difficult to yield to those Fetters, Priests and Philosophers would bind it in, and which were never forged by, nor are consistent with Reason. -- Reason bids us aim at Happiness, and can it be Happiness to waste our Days in denying ourselves the Blessings we were formed to enjoy, to support a continual Conflict in our Bosoms, between our Desires of Pleasure and the Mortification of them. No, from henceforth I renounce all Rules but those prescribed by my own Will -- all Law, but Inclination.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in WWO
Citation
4 entries in ESTC (1736, 1741). Retitled in second edition as The Unfortunate Princess: or the Life and Surprizing Adventures of the Princess of Ijaveo.
See Adventures of Eovaai. Princess of Ijaveo. A Pre-Adamitical History. Interspersed with a great Number of remarkable Occurrences, which happened, and may again happen, to several Empires, Kingdoms, Republicks, and particular Great Men. With some Account of the Religion, Laws, Customs, and Policies of those Times. Written originally in the Language of Nature, (of later Years but little understood.) First translated into Chinese, at the command of the Emperor, by a Cabal of Seventy Philosophers; and now retranslated into English, by the Son of a Mandarin, residing in London. (London: Printed for S. Baker, 1736). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text from Women Writers Online. <Link to WWO>
See Adventures of Eovaai. Princess of Ijaveo. A Pre-Adamitical History. Interspersed with a great Number of remarkable Occurrences, which happened, and may again happen, to several Empires, Kingdoms, Republicks, and particular Great Men. With some Account of the Religion, Laws, Customs, and Policies of those Times. Written originally in the Language of Nature, (of later Years but little understood.) First translated into Chinese, at the command of the Emperor, by a Cabal of Seventy Philosophers; and now retranslated into English, by the Son of a Mandarin, residing in London. (London: Printed for S. Baker, 1736). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text from Women Writers Online. <Link to WWO>
Date of Entry
09/23/2013
