Date: 1751
"This, and to see a succession of Humble Servants buzzing about a Mother, who took too much pride in addresses of that kind, what a beginning, what an example, to a constitution of tinder, so prepared to receive the spark struck from the steely forehead, and flinty heart, of such a Libertine, as ...
preview | full record— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)
Date: November 15, 1751
"My life was divided between the care of providing topicks for the entertainment of my company, and that of collecting company worthy to be entertained; for I soon found, that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries; that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impressi...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1752, 1791
"Know too, the joys of sense controul, / And clog the motions of the soul; / Forbid her pinions to aspire, / Damp and impair her native fire: / And sure as Sense (that tyrant!) reigns, / She holds the empress, Soul, in chains."
preview | full record— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)
Date: 1752
"Learning, he said, had the same Effect on the Mind, that strong Liquors have on the Constitution; both tending to eradicate all our natural Fire and Energy."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1752
"'O Miss Mathews! we have heard of Men entirely Masters of their Passions, and of Hearts which can carry this Fire in them, and conceal it at their Pleasure."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1752
"Perhaps there may be such; but if there are, those Hearts may be compared, I believe, to Damps, in which it is more difficult to keep Fire alive than to prevent its blazing: In mine, it was placed in the Midst of combustible Matter."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1753
"Passion! the great man's guide, the poor man's blame; / The soldier's lawrel, and the sigher's flame"
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1753
"He found me happiest of the Happy. Fortune and Honour crown'd me; and Love and Peace liv'd in my Heart. One Spark of Folly lurk'd there; That too he found; and by deceitful Breath blew it to Flames that have consum'd me."
preview | full record— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)
Date: 1753
"A Furnace rages in this Heart--I have been too hasty."
preview | full record— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)
Date: 1754
"Souls of tinder, discretions of flimsy gauze, that conceal not their folly--One day they will think as I do; and perhaps before they have daughters who will convince them of the truth of my assertion"
preview | full record— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)