Date: 1728, 1729, 1736

"A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;] i. e. A trifling head, and a contracted heart,as the poet, book 4. describes the accomplished Sons of Dulness; of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and so stuffed out with these corresponding materials."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1728, 1729, 1736

"She form'd this image of well-bodied air, / With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head, / A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead, / And empty words she gave, and sounding strain, / But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733, 1736

"The ruling Passion conquers reason still."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733

"There St. John mingles with my friendly Bowl, / The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733

"I nod in Company, I wake at Night, / Fools rush into my Head, and so I write."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733

"My head and heart thus flowing thro' my quill, / Verse-man or Prose-man, term me which you will."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733

"I love to pour out all myself, as plain / As downright Shippen, or as old Montagne. / In them, as certain to be lov'd as seen, / The Soul stood forth, nor kept a Thought within; / In me what Spots (for Spots I have) appear, / Will prove at least the Medium must be clear."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"It is therefore in the Anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body; more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Better for Us, perhaps, it might appear, / Were there all harmony, all virtue here; / That never air or ocean felt the wind; /That never passion discompos'd the mind: / But All subsists by elemental strife; / And Passions are the Elements of life. "

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"On Life's vast ocean diversely we sail, / Reason the card, but Passion is the gale."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)