Date: 1719
"I found indeed some Intervals of Reflection, and the serious Thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes, but I shook them off, and rouz'd my self from them as it were from a Distemper, and applying my self to Drinking and Company, soon master'd the Return of those Fits, for so...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1741-2
A "wounded conscience" may throb beneath a star, and shake one's "fabric with intestine war"
preview | full record— Gilbert, Thomas (bap. 1713, d. 1766)
Date: August 12, 1738, to Nov. 1, 1739 [1748]
"As to the Outward Manner You speak of, wherein most of them were affected who were cut to the Heart by the Sword of Spirit, no wonder that this was at first surprising to You, since they are indeed so very rare, that have been thus prick'd and wounded."
preview | full record— Wesley, John (1703-1791)
Date: 1758
"COME, Epictetus, arm my breast / With thy impenetrable steel, / No more the wounds of grief to feel, / Nor mourn, by others' woes deprest."
preview | full record— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)
Date: 1759
"For genius may be compared to the natural strength of the body; learning to the superinduced accoutrements of arms: if the first is equal to the proposed exploit, the latter rather encumbers, than assists; rather retards, than promotes, the victory."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1762
"I learnt, that when these people were first rescued out of their misery, their healths were much impaired, and their tempers more so: to restore the first, all medicinal care was taken, and air and exercise assisted greatly in their recovery; but to cure the malady of the mind, and conquer that ...
preview | full record— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)
Date: 1762-3
"[T]he five senses in alliance [may] / To Reason hurl a proud defiance, / And, though oft conquer'd, yet unbroke, / Endeavour to throw off that yoke / Which they a greater slavery hold / Than Jewish bondage was of old"
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1773
"O Wisdom! if thy soft controul / Can soothe the sickness of the soul, / Can bid the warring passions cease, / And breathe the calm of tender peace;-- / Wisdom! I bless thy gentle sway, / And ever, ever will obey."
preview | full record— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)
Date: 1777, 1780
"He made but little reply; but the impression sunk deep into his rancorous heart; every word in Edmund's behalf was like a poisoned arrow that rankled in the wound, and grew every day more inflamed."
preview | full record— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)