Date: 1684
"Nor were these Fruits in a rough Soil bestown / As Gemms are thick'st in rugged Quarries sown."
preview | full record— Oldham, John (1653-1683)
Date: 1691
"Thirdly, Let us hence duly learn to prize and value our Souls; is the Body such a rare Piece, what this is the Soul? the Body is but the Husk or Shell, the Soul is the Kernel; the Body is but the Cask, the Soul the precious Liquor contained in it; the Body is but the Cabinet; the Soul the Jewel;...
preview | full record— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)
Date: 1697
"Our Senses to the Mind while lodg'd in Clay, / Do all their various Images convey. / Things that we tast, and feel, and see, afford / The Seeds of Thought with which our Minds are stor'd."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1733-4
"Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill, / Grafts on this Passion our best principle: / 'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd, / Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1736, 1737, 1759, 1744, 1771, 1773
"As well might we expect, in winter, spring, / As land untilled a fruitful crop should bring; / As well might we expect Peruvian ore / We should possess, yet dig not for the store: / Culture improves all fruits, all sorts we find, / Wit, judgement, sense--fruits of the human mind."
preview | full record— Ingram, Anne [née Howard; other married name Douglas], Viscountess Irwin (c. 1696-1764)
Date: 1738, 1739
"Like Twigs, entrusted to the Planter's Pains, / Who prunes, engrafts, indulges, or restrains, / Till in the Garden Ornament they yield, / And Fruit, which else had cumber'd up the Field: / Or that rich Ore we from the Indies bring, / Which bears, refin'd, the Image of the King; / But mix'd for-e...
preview | full record— Bancks, John (1709-1751)
Date: 1750, 1752
"Whether the Mind, like Soil, doth not by Disuse grow stiff; and whether Reasoning and Study be not like stirring and dividing the Glebe?"
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1759
"Minds slothful, like uncultivated Earth, / To Weeds of Vice, and Folly, give a Birth; / Silver, and Gold, for Want of proper Use, / Their Splendor lose, and cancrous Rust produce; / Streams owe their Purity, to active Speed, / If Waters stagnate, they Corruption breed."
preview | full record— Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)
Date: 1766
"Gen'rous bosoms, more than gems of gold, / Rich funds of morals, knowledge, sense, unfold; / Transmitting each, to each, the rising store, / For wisdom's plants, while cropping, flourish more, A magic circle! whose enchanted round, / Admits no fiend to tread the hallow'd ground."
preview | full record— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Date: 1767
"A heart of oak, and breast of brass / Were his, who first presum'd on seas to pass, / And ever ventur'd to engage, / In a slight skiff, with ocean's desperate rage."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771); Horace (65 B.C. -8 B.C.)