Date: 1794
"When we are suddenly awaked by any violent stimulus, the surprise totally disunites the trains of our sleeping ideas from these of our waking ones; but if we gradually awake, this does not happen; and we readily unravel the preceding trains of imagination."
preview | full record— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)
Date: 1817, 1818
"Yet in my hollow looks and withered mien / The likeness of a shape for which was braided / The brightest woof of genius, still was seen."
preview | full record— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Date: 1831
"The sublimest poet that ever sung, was peradventure, while a stripling, unconscious of the treasures which formed a part of the fabric of his mind, and unsuspicious of the high destiny that in the sequel awaited him."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)