feast of reason

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feast of reason

An intellectual or scholarly discussion. The phrase comes from 18th-century poet Alexander Pope. I left because the feast of reason that's going on in there started to bore me.

feast of reason

intellectual talk.

This expression comes from the poet Alexander Pope's description of congenial conversation in Imitations of Horace: ‘The feast of reason and the flow of soul’.

See also: feast, of, reason

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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References in classic literature ?

Their language being similar to that of the great apes Meriem could converse with them though the poverty of their vocabulary rendered these exchanges anything but feasts of reason. For familiar objects they had names, as well as for those conditions which induced pain or pleasure, joy, sorrow, or rage.

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Leo Hunter has many of these breakfasts, Sir,' resumed the new acquaintance--'"feasts of reason," sir, "and flows of soul," as somebody who wrote a sonnet to Mrs.

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Again and again he strove to brace himself up to join the feasts of reason and flows of soul which he knew were taking place nightly around the object of his devotions, but every time he failed.