“What would you have otherwise from ignorance, envy, or those tempers…” — Thomas Parnell | V2Melody

“What would you have otherwise from ignorance, envy, or those tempers which vie with you in your own way?”

Rivals and the unlearned are expected to resist a rising reputation · Letter to Alexander Pope, 27 June 1715

About Thomas Parnell

Thomas Parnell

11 September 1679–24 October 1718

Thomas Parnell, born in Dublin on 11 September 1679 and dead at Chester, England, on 24 October 1718, occupies a distinctive position in the literary culture of the early eighteenth century. He was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, poet, translator, essayist, and valued member of the brilliant circle that included Jonathan…

More by Thomas Parnell

Poems by Thomas Parnell

More remarks by Thomas Parnell

“I know this in mankind, that when our ambition is unable to attain its end, it is not only wearied, but exasperated too at the vanity of its labours; then we speak ill of happier studies, and, sighing, condemn the excellence which we find above our reach.”

Failed ambition turns into dispraise of what it cannot match · Letter to Alexander Pope, 27 June 1715

“This makes us easy in the midst of them, fond to shew them, fond to improve in them, and to be esteemed for them.”

We not only miss our faults but parade them as accomplishments · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

“My dream has given me occasion all my life to reflect upon the fatal consequences of following the suggestions of Vanity.”

The vision ends as a standing warning against self-display · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712