Date: Published serially, 1765-1770

"And we shall be as so many Mirrors, wherein our divine Friend and Father shall delight to behold the express Image of his own Person, his own Perfections and Beatitudes represented for ever."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1768

"And now elate in fancy's mirrour view, / Those hopeful plains where Mantua's poplars grew."

— Sterling, Joseph (fl. 1765-1794)

Date: 1768

"The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself and blackened; reduce them to their proper size and hue she overlooks them."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1772

"The Eye, that Orb of Light, which shews / The Features of the Mind, / Distinct, as faithful Mirrours yield / The Forms of human Kind."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1772

"In Fancy's Mirror, we but darkling see, / What must, hereafter, our Advantage be."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1775

A new light may break in upon someone

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)

Date: May 18, 1782, 1785

"Why is the countenance made a mask for the soul, when it should be a mirror, in which every eye might behold the true features of the mind, in the deformity of vice, or the loveliness of virtue!"

— Pilon, Frederick (1750-1788)

Date: 1790

"Indeed in the gross and complicated mass of human passions and concerns, the primitive rights of men undergo such a variety of refractions and reflections, that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: November 19, 1793

"But with the assistance of my motto, I hope at once to elucidate the observation, brighten the mirror of fancy, and solve the fluctuation of doubt."

— Boyd, Hugh (1746-1794)