Date: w. c. 1800, 1805

"These sudden eruptions of the passions of the multitude, spread, like the lava of a volcano, throughout all France, nor could men of correct judgment, who aimed only at reform of abuses, and a renovation in all the departments, check the fury of the torrent."

— Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814)

Date: 1810, 1820

"Though slow to entertain thoughts of love, as soon as he perceives the partiality of his ward, it enters his breast like a torrent when the flood-gates are opened."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1841

"What do we know of the unquiet pillow, / By the worn cheek and tearful eyelid prest, / When thoughts chase thoughts, like the tumultuous billow, / Whose very light and foam reveal unrest?"

— Landon, Laetitia Elizabeth [L.E.L.] (1802-1838)

Date: 1847

"I've dreamed in my life dreams that have staid with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind."

— Brontë, Emily (1818-1848)

Date: 1860

"She read so eagerly and constantly in her three books, the Bible, Thomas-a-Kempis, and the 'Christian Year' (no longer rejected as a 'hymn-book') that they filled her mind with a continual stream of rhythmic memories; and she was too ardently learning to see all nature and life in the light of h...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"It was one of those dangerous moments when speech is at once sincere and deceptive - when feeling, rising high above its average depth, leaves flood-marks which are never reached again."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"But his father was silent: the flood of emotion hemmed in all power of speech."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"Even now, her mind, with that instantaneous alternation which makes two currents of feeling or imagination seem simultaneous, is glancing continually from Stephen to the preparations she has only half finished in Maggie's room."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"'I will bring you the book, shall I, Miss Tulliver?' said Stephen, when he found the stream of his recollections running rather shallow."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"But there were things in her stronger than vanity - passion, and affection, and long deep memories of early discipline and effort, of early claims on her love and pity; and the stream of vanity was soon swept along and mingled imperceptibly with that wider current which was at its highest force ...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)