Date: 1751, 1777
"Virtue, placed at such a distance, is like a fixed star, which, though to the eye of reason, it may appear as luminous as the sun in his meridian, is so infinitely removed, as to affect the senses, neither with light nor heat."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1765
"Let those, whose arts to fatal paths betray, / The soul with passion's gloom tempestuous blind, / And snatch from Reason's ken th'auspicious ray / Truth darts from Heaven to guide th'exploring mind."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Date: 1767
"An original Author indeed will frequently be apt to exceed in the use of this ornament, by pouring forth such a blaze of imagery, as to dazzle and overpower the mental sight; the effect of which is, that his Writings become obscure, if not unintelligible to common Readers; just as the eye is for...
preview | full record— Duff, William (1732-1815)
Date: 1771, 1776
"And Reason now through Number, Time, and Space, / 'Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye, / 'And learns, from facts compared, the laws to trace, / 'Whose long progression leads to Deity."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Date: 1774
"While a man is engaged in composition or investigation, he often seems to himself to be fired with his subject, and to teem with ideas; but on revising the work, finds that his judgment is offended, and his time lost. An idea that sparkled in the eye of fancy, is often condemned by judgment as f...
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: April, 1783
"An Hypochondriack is subject to forgetfulness, which may be owing to another cause; that there is a darkness in his mind, or that its perceptive eye is injured and weak at times."
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1793
" When painful truths invade the mind, / Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind, / And hates th' officious ray."
preview | full record— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)