Date: 1775

"Before the queen an oval mirror stands, / The curious labor of her active hands; / Ample its size; of wondrous texture wrought; / With pow'r endu'd, surpassing human thought."

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1775

"On this deceptive mirror FANCY gaz'd; / For in its field she saw whate'er she pleas'd: / Whate'er in thought her fertile brain design'd, / (The varying labours of her changeful mind,) / Whate'er she wills, within its orb she spies, / True to her wish the airy visions rise."

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1777, 1778

"The mind of youth is a kind of tabula rasa;--at first unstained with guilt, and unadorned with virtue."

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1777, 1778

"May the fair page never be polluted!--may it become inscribed with every excellent virtue--and be thereby rendered comely in the sight of Men, of Angels, of the Deity!"

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1838

"Although we may have fondly loved them [the dead], and may hallow the memory of their good qualities, we cannot always summon their image before us, and by the power of conception gaze on their features, and listen to their voice; but I venture to express my conviction, that no one who has been ...

— Gurney, Joseph John (1788-1847)