Date: 1718

The mind is like "The Pope [who] prays and sleeps at Rome, / And very seldom stirs from Home: / Yet sending forth his Holy Spies, / And having heard what They advise, / He rules the Church's blest Dominions; / And sets Men's Faith by His Opinions."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"Alma, They strenuously maintain, / Sits Cock-horse on Her Throne, the Brain; / And from that Seat of Thought dispenses / Her Sov'reign Pleasure to the Senses."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1733, 1736

"The ruling Passion conquers reason still."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"And hence one Master Passion in the breast, / Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"So, cast and mingled with his very frame, / The mind's disease, its ruling passion came: / Each vital humour which should feed the whole, / Soon flows to this, in body and in soul."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse; / Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse; / Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r; / As Heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sowr; / We wretched subjects tho' to lawful sway, / In this weak queen, some fav'rite still obey."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, / Is emulation in the learn'd or brave:"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"'Tis in the ruling Passion: there alone, / The wild are constant, and the cunning known, / The fool consistent, and the false sincere; / Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Clodio, the Scorn and Wonder of our days, / Whose ruling passion was the Lust of Praise."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"And you! brave Cobham, to the latest breath, / Shall feel your ruling Passion strong in death."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)