Date: 1786

"But if (which Pow'rs above prevent) / That iron-hearted carl, Want, / Attended, in his grim advances, / By sad mistakes, and black mischances"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1787

"Still crowding thoughts, a pensive train, / Rose in my soul"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1788

"For me in vain is Nature drest, / While Joy's a stranger to my breast"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: w. January 24, 1789

"Reason drops headlong from his sacred throne."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: w. January 24, 1789

"Your dear idea reigns, and reigns alone; / Each thought intoxicated homage yields, / And riots wanton in forbidden fields."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1789, 1800

"On his one ruling passion Sir Pope hugely labors, / That, like th'old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbours."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1789, 1800

"Human Nature's his show-box--your friend, would you know him? / Pull the string, Ruling Passion--the picture will show him."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1789, 1800

"Some sort all our qualities each to its tribe, / And think Human Nature they truly describe"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1790

"The dreadful tales of robbers' bloody deeds, / That oft had swell'd his theme while nightly stretch'd / Now crowded on his mind in all their rage / Of pistols, purses, stand! deliver! death!"

— Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813)

Date: 1793

"There, train'd amid slaughter and ruin to wade, / They toil in the heart-steeling, barbarous trade."

— Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813)