Date: 1771

It "is curious to observe how the nature of truth may be changed by the garb it wears; softened to the admonition of friendship, or soured into the severity of reproof: yet this severity may be useful to some tempers; it somewhat resembles a file; disagreeable in its operation, but hard metals ma...

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1771

"The optics of some minds are in so unlucky a perspective, as to throw a certain shade on every picture that is presented to them; while those of others (of which number was Harley) like the mirrors of the ladies, have a wonderful effect in bettering their complexions"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: May 7, 1772

"Conscience, that candid judge of right and wrong, / Will o'er the secrets of each heart preside, / Nor aw'd by pomp, nor tam'd by soothing song."

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: August 31, 1772

"For sure your head-piece is a mint / Whar wit's nae rare."

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: June 4, 1772, 1773

In the fields "peerless Fancy hads her court / And tunes her lays."

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: November 25, 1773

"You've seen me round the bickers reel / Wi' heart as hale as temper'd steel,"

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: w. 1767, dated 1773 [unpublished in period]

"To show that all inferences of reason are false or uncertain, and that the understanding acting alone does entirely subvert itself, and prove by argument that by argument nothing can be proved, he has contrived a puppet of mushrooms, cork, cobwebs, gossamer, and other fungous and flimsy material...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1773

"But there was a judge in the bosom of Annesly, whom it was more difficult to satisfy; nor could he for a long time be brought to pardon himself that blow, for which the justice of his country had acquitted him."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1773

One may blot from his mind "the idea of future retribution"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1773

"The passions which thou didst implant in me, that reason which should balance them, is unable to withstand"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)