Date: 1779, 1781
"Language is the dress of thought; and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanicks, so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy, and the most splendid ideas drop their magnificence...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1781
"So that all material objects, in themselves, and to each other, are dark and naked: to the mind alone are they cloathed in all the pleasing variety of sensible qualities."
preview | full record— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)
Date: 1781
"Mind, like a bride from a nobler family, enriches matter by its union, and brings as a dower, possessions before unknown. Henceforth matter appears cloathed in a gayer and richer garment; and the fruits of this union are a new progeny, to which matter, confining its alliance to its own family, c...
preview | full record— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)
Date: 1786
"Young Fancy, oft in rainbow vest array'd, / Points to new scenes that in succession pass / Across the wond'rous mirror that she bears, / And bids thy unsated soul and wandering eye / A wider range o'er all her prospects take."
preview | full record— Headley, Henry (1765-1788)