Date: 1747, 1811

"'Yes, if his soul to reason's rule resign'd, / 'And heaven's own views fair-opening on his mind,/ 'Caught from bright nature's flame the living ray, / 'Through passion's cloud pour'd in resistless day; / 'And taught mankind in reas'ning Pride's despite, / 'That God is wise, and all that is righ...

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1771

"Grace, that with tenderness and sense combin'd / To form that harmony of soul and face, / Where beauty shines the mirror of the mind."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1772-1781

What availed the songs of a "mighty mind, / With inward light irradiate, mirror-like / Receiv'd, and to mankind with ray reflex / The sov'reign Planter's primal work display'd?"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1772-1781

"Fond Fancy's eye, / That inly gives locality and form / To what she prizes best, full oft pervades / Those hidden caverns, where pale chrysolites, / And glittering spars dart a mysterious gleam / Of inborn lustre, from the garish day / Unborrow'd."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1777

"I'd hangings weave, in fancy's loom / For Lady Norton's dressing room."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1772-1781, 1781

"But, if thy faint springs / Refuse this large supply, steel thy firm soul / With stoic pride"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1783

"When first the orient rays of beauty move / The conscious soul, they light the lamp of love"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: w. 1787, 1797

"They only who are curst with breasts of steel / Can mock the foibles of surviving love"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: w. 1746, 1797

"His youthful breast, by years mature refin'd, / May shine the mirror of thy blameless mind."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: w. 1794, 1797

"'Tis only those of purer clay / 'From sensual dross refined, / 'In whom the passions pleas'd obey / 'The God within the mind, / 'Who share my delegated aid, / 'Through Wisdom's golden mean convey'd / 'From the first source of sov'reign good."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)