Date: 1741

"For one obscure or confused Idea, especially if it be of great Importance in the Question, intermingled with many clear ones, and placed in its Variety of Aspects towards them, will be in Danger of spreading Confusion over the whole Scene of Ideas, and thus may have an unhappy Influence to overw...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1741

"This will gradually give the Mind a Faculty of surveying many objects at once; as a Room that is richly adorned and hung round with a great Variety of Pictures, strikes the Eye almost at once with all that Variety, especially if they have been well surveyed one by one at first: This makes it hab...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1744

"Death, and his image rising in the brain, / Bear faint resemblance; never are alike: / Fear shakes the pencil; Fancy loves excess; / Dark Ignorance is lavish of her shades: And these the formidable picture draw."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Our senses, as our reason, are Divine. / But for the magic organ's powerful charm, / Earth were a rude, uncolour'd chaos still. / Objects are but the' occasion: ours the' exploit; / Ours is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint, / Which Nature's admirable picture draws, / And beautifies Creation'...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"These flattering scenes / To this neglected labour court my song; / Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task / To paint the finest features of the mind, / And to most subtile and mysterious things / Give colour, strength, and motion."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)