"Slave to thy self, whilst Lord of all beside, / Surmount thy Weakness, or renounce thy Pride."
— Paget, Thomas Catesby, Lord Paget (1689-1742)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed, and are to be sold by Fletcher Gyles
Date
1734 [1735?]
Metaphor
"Slave to thy self, whilst Lord of all beside, / Surmount thy Weakness, or renounce thy Pride."
Metaphor in Context
Self-Love, howe'er disguis'd, misunderstood,
Howe'er misplac'd, is still the sov'reign Good:
Virtue or Wisdom but the vain Pretence,
These may direct, but Passions influence.
Presumptuous Man! why dost thou boast Free Will
By Constitution doom'd to Good or Ill?
What feeble Checks are all those studied Rules,
Unpractis'd Lessons of the useless Schools?
Say, can thy Art oppos'd to Nature's Force
Obstruct her Motions, or suspend her Course?
Go, change in Africa their sable Hue,
Or make our Europe bring her Negroes too;
Roll back the Tides, forbid the Streams to flow,
Nor let this Earth returning Seasons know.
Slave to thy self, whilst Lord of all beside,
Surmount thy Weakness, or renounce thy Pride.
(pp. 2-3, ll. 43-54)
Howe'er misplac'd, is still the sov'reign Good:
Virtue or Wisdom but the vain Pretence,
These may direct, but Passions influence.
Presumptuous Man! why dost thou boast Free Will
By Constitution doom'd to Good or Ill?
What feeble Checks are all those studied Rules,
Unpractis'd Lessons of the useless Schools?
Say, can thy Art oppos'd to Nature's Force
Obstruct her Motions, or suspend her Course?
Go, change in Africa their sable Hue,
Or make our Europe bring her Negroes too;
Roll back the Tides, forbid the Streams to flow,
Nor let this Earth returning Seasons know.
Slave to thy self, whilst Lord of all beside,
Surmount thy Weakness, or renounce thy Pride.
(pp. 2-3, ll. 43-54)
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).
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
