Original artwork, not a still
The Hind and the Panther • 1687
For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker claims that when heaven has marked someone for downfall, it first strips away their judgment. Ruin arrives only after reason has been dismantled, so the person walks into disaster without seeing it. Catastrophe is presented as a fate prepared from within, beginning in the mind.
Context reviewed
