Date: 1754
"Sensation would be of little use to form the understanding, if we had no other faculty than mere passive perception; but without sensation these other faculties would have nothing to operate upon, reflection would have by consequence nothing to reflect upon, and it is by reflection that we multi...
preview | full record— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
Date: 1755
"By consequence, the several stages of its future perfection and advancement will fundamentally arise from the treasury it retains of all its primitive ideas."
preview | full record— Sharp, William, Vicar of Long Burton
Date: 1755
"But since the brain doth lodge the pow'rs of sense, / How makes it in the heart those passions spring?"
preview | full record— Davies [from Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language]
Date: March 1756
"The thought-kindling light, / Thy prime production, darts upon my mind / Its vivifying beams, my heart illumines, / And fills my soul with gratitude and Thee."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: 1757
"Let heav'n-born Mercy ever fill thy Breast, / And Truth be there an ever constant Guest."
preview | full record— Arnold, Cornelius (b. 1714, d. in or after 1758?)
Date: 1757
"The mind of man has naturally a far greater alacrity and satisfaction in tracing resemblances than in searching for differences; because by making resemblances we produce new images, we unite, we create, we enlarge our stock; but in making distinctions we offer no food at all to the imagi...
preview | full record— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Thou look'st at me, as if thou fain would'st pry / Into my heart. 'Tis open as my speech."
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Infernal fiends, if any fiends there are / More fierce than hate, ambition, and revenge, / Rise up and fill my bosom with your fires, / And policy remorseless!"
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Thy inspiration, Lord! / Hath fill'd his bosom with that sacred fire, / Which in the breasts of his forefathers burn'd."
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"'Twas I! alas! 'twas I / That fill'd her breast with fury"
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)