"Fair Nymph! oft inward turn your mental Eye, / Your Soul reflecting can herself descry: / By Self-examination, she will find / Each Blemish, in the Features of the Mind."

— Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)

Author

Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)

Work Title

Female Conduct: Being an Essay on the Art of Pleasing

Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for W. Owen
Date
1759
Metaphor
"Fair Nymph! oft inward turn your mental Eye, / Your Soul reflecting can herself descry: / By Self-examination, she will find / Each Blemish, in the Features of the Mind."
Metaphor in Context
A while, to gaze in yonder Glass, forbear,
Your outward Form deserves not all your Care,
Ah! let your Spirit some Indulgence share;
Fair Nymph! oft inward turn your mental Eye,
Your Soul reflecting can herself descry:
By Self-examination, she will find
Each Blemish, in the Features of the Mind;
By such a Search, she will Self-Knowledge gain,
And learn her ruling Passion to restrain;
She will herself, in Reason's Mirror, see,
And pleas'd, assert, her Immortality.
(pp. 70-71)
Categories
Body::Eye Body::Face::Blemish
Provenance
ECCO
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1759, 1760, 1775).

Text from Female Conduct: Being an Essay on the Art of Pleasing. To Be Practised by the Fair Sex, Before, and After Marriage. A Poem, in Two Books. Humbly Dedicated, to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. Inscribed to Plautilla. by Thomas Marriott, Esq. (London: Printed for W. Owen, at Homer's Head, Temple-Bar, 1759). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
10/28/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.