Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

We "suffer our selves to be blown and toss'd by our Passions, without casting Anchor on the Coast of sound Judgment, or steering to the Harbour of right Reason"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"I was in this Labyrinth of Thoughts when one brought me a Letter from Exiilus"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"I will not repeat to you, Madam, the divers Conflicts of my Thoughts and the Agitation of my Mind on this Occasion; for my Interior labour'd as it were under a Fever and Ague, burning with an irresistible Inclination for Marcellus"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"[W]hen once Passion blinds us, Passion misguides us, Passion overthrows us, Passion destroys us, and no Passion so strong and so deceitful as that of Love; Love rocks our Reason into a Lethargy, and then does what it pleases with the rest of our Interior"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"Then since it is impossible to make my Heart cease from sighing Love, and my Mind from thinking Love, my Eyes from languishing, it is vain to command my Tongue to cease from declaring what all my interiour Passions dictate"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"But Cordiala's vertuous Mein and Actions fasten'd his young Heart in the strong Bonds of an unalterable Affection, which he discover'd to her on all Occasions possible."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1713

"Thus far, our slow Imagination goes: / Wou'd the more skill'd THEANOR his disclose; / Expand the Scene, and open to our Sight / What to his nicer Judgment gives Delight; / Whose soaring Mind do's to Perfections climb, / Nor owns a Relish, but for Things sublime."

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)

Date: 1713

"An equal Partner in the vanquish'd Earth, / A Brother, not impos'd upon my Birth, / Too weak a Tye unequal Thoughts to bind, / But by the gen'rous Motions of the Mind."

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)

Date: 1713

"How soft the first Ideas prove, / Which wander through our Minds!"

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)

Date: 1713

"Bless me, each cries, from such a working Brain! / And to Hippocrates they send / The Sage's long-acquainted Friend, / To put in Tune his jarring Mind again, / And Pericranium mend."

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)