Date: 1712

The mind "Can each reluctant Appetite controul: / Can ev'ry Passion rule, and ev'ry Sense, / Change Nature's Course, and with her Laws dispense: / Our Breathing to prevent, she can arrest / Th'Extension, or Contraction of the Breast: / When pain'd with Hunger we can Food refuse, / And wholesome A...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"She next essay'd the Embryo's Rise to trace / From an unfashion'd, rude, unchannell'd Mass; / And sung how Spirits waken'd in the Brain / Exert their Force, and genial Toil maintain; / Erect the beating Heart, the Channels frame, / Unfold entangled Limbs, and kindle vital Flame."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"How Spirits, which for Sense and Motion serve, / Unguided find the perforated Nerve. / Thro' ev'ry dark Recess pursue their Flight, / Unconscious of the Road and void of Sight, / Yet certain of the End still guide their Motions right."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

Atheists should "No more at Reason's solemn Bar appear, / Hardy no more Scholastic Weapons bear."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Reluctant Reason you'll in Fetters keep, / And lay th' insulting Judge within asleep."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Set forth your Edict, let it be enjoyn'd, / That all defective Species be recoyn'd: / R---r and E---r---t are Judges fit / To oversee the Stamping of our Wit."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"The Mind, e'er Guilt had Man undone, / With Heav'nly Lustre, like blest Seraphs, shone."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"The World a Scene of murder'd Souls appears, / Interr'd in living Sepulchres, / And moved from Place to Place in walking Tombs."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Black Guilt involves the World in horrid Night, / And clouds our Intellectual Sight."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"The Soul is darker than the deepest Cave, / Hard as the Rock, and colder than the Grave"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)