"Nature, my friend, profuse in vain, / May every gift impart; / If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain / An empire o'er the heart."
— Anstey, Christopher (1724-1805)
Date
1766, 1808
Metaphor
"Nature, my friend, profuse in vain, / May every gift impart; / If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain / An empire o'er the heart."
Metaphor in Context
Sure there are charms by Heaven assign'd
To modish life alone;
A grace, an air, a taste refin'd,
To vulgar souls unknown.
Nature, my friend, profuse in vain,
May every gift impart;
If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain
An empire o'er the heart.
To modish life alone;
A grace, an air, a taste refin'd,
To vulgar souls unknown.
Nature, my friend, profuse in vain,
May every gift impart;
If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain
An empire o'er the heart.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "empire" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 28 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1766, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1776, 1779, 1784, 1788, 1791, 1794, 1797, 1800).
See The New Bath Guide: or, Memoirs of the B-r-d family. In a Series of Poetical Epistles. ([London]: sold by J. Dodsley; J. Wilson & J. Fell; and J. Almon, London; W. Frederick, at Bath; W. Jackson at Oxford; T. Fletcher & F. Hodson, at Cambridge; W. Smith, at Dublin; and the booksellers of Bristol, York and Edinburgh, 1766). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Poetical Works of the Late Christopher Anstey, Esq. with Some Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by his Son, John Anstey, Esq. (London: W. Bulmer & Co., 1808). <Link to LION>
See The New Bath Guide: or, Memoirs of the B-r-d family. In a Series of Poetical Epistles. ([London]: sold by J. Dodsley; J. Wilson & J. Fell; and J. Almon, London; W. Frederick, at Bath; W. Jackson at Oxford; T. Fletcher & F. Hodson, at Cambridge; W. Smith, at Dublin; and the booksellers of Bristol, York and Edinburgh, 1766). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Poetical Works of the Late Christopher Anstey, Esq. with Some Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by his Son, John Anstey, Esq. (London: W. Bulmer & Co., 1808). <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
08/22/2004
Date of Review
06/09/2010
