Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Hitherto the stores, / Which feed thy mind and exercise her powers, / Partake the relish of their native soil, / Their parent earth."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1745

"Soon as his Breast receiv'd the potent Ray, / Whate'er possest it, instantly gave way; / As in the Wood before the Lightning's Beam, / Perish the Leaves, and the whole Tree is Flame."

— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)

Date: 1746, 1753

"So, from injected thought, shoots passion's growth; / No sprout spontaneous, no chance child, of sloth: / Idea lends it root-- firm, on touch'd minds, / Fancy, (swift planter!) first, th' impression binds; / Shap'd in conception's mould, nature's prompt skill / Bids subject nerves obey th' inspi...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Mourn it, ye sons of spleen, whose hands (mistaught) / Tore up this seed of sense, this plant of thought / Whence reasoning shoots might bloom life's garden o'er, And weedy wildness choak her walks no more."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1748

"It is most true that the root of religion lies in the heart, in the inmost soul; [...] but if this root be really in the heart it cannot put forth branches"

— Wesley, John (1703-1791)

Date: Tuesday, March 27, 1750

"The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more p...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, November 3, 1750

"Some of these instructors of mankind have not contented themselves with checking the overflows of passion, and lopping the exuberance of desire, but have attempted to destroy the root as well as the branches; and not only to confine the mind within bounds, but to smooth it for ever by a dead calm."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, December 17, 1751

"Envy is, indeed, a stubborn weed of the mind, and seldom yields to the culture of philosophy."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751, 1791

"Now take a Simile at Hand, / Compare the mental Soil to Land."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: Saturday, December 21, 1751

"A careless glance upon a favourite author, or transient survey of the varieties of life, is sufficient to supply the first hint or seminal idea, which, enlarged by the gradual accretion of matter stored in the mind, is by the warmth of fancy easily expanded into flowers, and sometimes ripened in...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)