"Whate'er we do, the Motive's much the same, / 'Tis Impulse governs, under Reason's Name; / Each eagerly some fav'rite End pursues, / And diff'rent Tempers furnish diff'rent Views."

— Paget, Thomas Catesby, Lord Paget (1689-1742)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed, and are to be sold by Fletcher Gyles
Date
1734 [1735?]
Metaphor
"Whate'er we do, the Motive's much the same, / 'Tis Impulse governs, under Reason's Name; / Each eagerly some fav'rite End pursues, / And diff'rent Tempers furnish diff'rent Views."
Metaphor in Context
Reason, perhaps may lend her gen'rous Aid;
Reason, which never yet her Trust betray'd:
Let her direct us in the doubtful Strife,
Let her conduct us thro' the Maze of Life.
Is human Reason then from Weakness free?
Partakes she not of our Infirmity?
Can she apply with never-failing Art,
The healing Balsam to the wounded Part?
Correct those Errors, which the Passions cause,
And teach the Will to follow Wisdom's Laws?
Alas! Experience but too plainly shews
That Man can act against the Truths he knows:
By Customs led, or by Alurements won,
Discern that Evil, which he cannot shun.
Whate'er we do, the Motive's much the same,
'Tis Impulse governs, under Reason's Name;
Each eagerly some fav'rite End pursues,
And diff'rent Tempers furnish diff'rent Views.

(p. 2, l. 13-30)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 8 entries in LION, ECCO, and ESTC (1734, 1735, 1736, 1741, 1750, 1757, 1776, 1779).

See An Essay on Human Life. (London: Printed, and are to be sold by Fletcher Gyles over-against Grays Inn in Holborn, 1734). <Link to ESTC>

Text from An Essay on Human Life. By the Right Honourable the Lord Paget. The Third Edition. Corrected and Much Enlarg'd by the Author (Dublin and London: Printed, and Re-printed by George Faulkner, 1736). See also London printing of same year: <Link to Google Books>. And also Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (London: 1741).

Attributed to Pope and published in A Supplement to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. (1757) and Additions to the Works of Alexander Pope (1776). Excerpts in Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1793, 1794, 1795).
Date of Entry
11/17/2013

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