Date: 1774
"A parcel of warm hearts and inexperienced heads, heated by convivial mirth, and possibly a little too much wine, vow, and really mean at the time, eternal friendships to each other, and indiscreetly pour out their whole souls in common, and without the least reserve."
preview | full record— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
Date: 1775
Love and fear may dry up "soft springs of pity" in the heart and freeze them
preview | full record— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)
Date: 1775
"My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine; / And in my breast the imperfect joys expire."
preview | full record— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)
Date: 1775
"But, O, my brother! if thou hast a heart / That is not steel'd with stoic apathy / Against the magic of all-conqu'ring love, / Beware of beauty's pow'r; for she has charms / Wou'd melt the frozen breast of hoary age, / Or draw the lonely hermit from his cell / To gaze upon her."
preview | full record— Francklin, Thomas (1721-1784)
Date: 1776-1789
"The influence of a polite age and the labour of an attentive education had never been able to infuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture of learning"
preview | full record— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)
Date: 1780, 1781, 1788
"Thy simple diction, free from glaring art, / With sweet allurement steals upon the heart, / Pure, as the rill, that Nature's hand refines; / Clear, as thy harmony of soul, it shines."
preview | full record— Hayley, William (1745-1820)
Date: 1782
The swell of pity may not be confined with "the scanty limits of the mind"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
Time is a river that fails to enrich the mind and "leaves a dreary waste behind"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1784
"Thy piercing thought / Unaided saw each movement of the mind, / As skilful artists view the small machine, / The secret springs and nice dependencies, / And to thy mimic scenes, by fancy wrought / To such a wond'rous shape, th'impassion'd breast / In floods of grief, or peals of laughter bow'd, ...
preview | full record— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)