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Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789

"So poignant a mind in a vulgariz'd shell,/ Resembles a bucket of gold in a well; / 'Tis like Ceylon's best spice in a rude-fashion'd jar, / Or Comedy coop'd in a Dutch man of war."

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)

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Date: 1790

"Vain are a man's titles--vain his wealth--vain his pursuits of pleasure--the guilty mind has no enjoyment--neither rank nor riches can steel the breast against the stings of conscience."

— Trusler, John (1735-1820)

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Date: 1794, 1797

"If you have reduced me to the necessity of again debating the same painful and gloomy question, if you cannot give that elasticity to my mind which will animate it to despise difficulty and steel it against injustice, however good your intentions may have been, I fear you have but imposed misery...

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

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Date: 1796

"The climate's heat, 'tis well known, operates with no small influence upon the constitutions of the Spanish ladies: but the most abandoned would have thought it an easier task to inspire with passion the marble statue of St. Francis than the cold and rigid heart of the immaculate Ambrosio."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

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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)

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Date: 1802

"Is prouder yet in sterling worth to shine, / Stamp'd by the friendship of a mind like thine"

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

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Date: 1805

"Your Worth and Talents will unfold, / Richer than Needlework of Gold; / The native treasures of the soul, / True--as the Needle to the Pole."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

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Date: 1805

"And the gay vein of sportive Sense / Enrich'd by sterling Innocence; / Th'undrossy treasures of the Mind / Good-humour'd, graceful, and refin'd; / And, rivalling the Seers of old, / Whate'er you touch transmutes to Gold."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

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Date: 1807-8

"Thus with the show of reason, but with hearts, / By faction tainted, and by envy steel'd / Against their youthful leader, they had hop'd / By these inglorious councils to degrade / And tarnish his high fame."

— Burges, Sir James Bland (1752-1824)

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Date: 1817

"But he, the bard of every age and clime, / Of genius fruitful, ardent and sublime, / Who, from the glowing mint of fancy, pours / No spurious metal, fused from common ores, / But gold, to matchless purity refined, / And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind."

— Gifford, William (1756-1826)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.