Date: 1785

"The shifts and turns, / The expedients and inventions multiform / To which the mind resorts, in chase of terms / Though apt, yet coy, and difficult to win,-- / To arrest the fleeting images that fill / The mirror of the mind, and hold them fast, / And force them sit, till he has pencil'd off / ...

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

The mind may be "enlighten'd from above"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

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."

— Headley, Henry (1765-1788)

Date: 1787

"May Europe's race the generous toil pursue, / And Truth's broad mirror spread to every view; / Awake to Reason's voice the savage mind, / Check Error's force, and civilize mankind."

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

Date: 1787

"But does not Reason's faithful mirror she / The future prospect of distress and woe,/ And point what dangers modern softness wait / In the sad tale of Rome's declining state?"

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

Date: w. October 27, 1777, printed 1788

"In a man's letters, you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1788

"Seize! seize! the glowing images that pass / Like transient shadows o'er the mimic glass!"

— Whalley, Thomas Sedgwick (1746-1828)

Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789

"Oh! I'm sick to the soul, to see Music alone, / Stretch her negligent length on the Drama's gay throne; / Where Muses more honor'd by Wisdom should sit, / To adorn the heart's mirror, and fashion our wit"

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

Date: w. 1789, 1804

"Heav'n's pure Word would prompt Affection win, / And purge the Soul from all polluting Sin; / Till, like a faithful mirror Man would shine, / By Wisdom polish'd, and by Grace, divine."

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)

Date: 1790

"Or novelty, fair pleasure's youthful queen, / Gives fresh allurements to each splendid scene, / To these, in fancy's varying mirror shown, / Amusement charms with beauties not its own."

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)