Date: 1788

" My panting soul is all on fire"

— Whalley, Thomas Sedgwick (1746-1828)

Date: 1788

"Within the heart which love illumes, / And blesses with his sacred rays, / If meaner passion e'er presumes, / It fades before the hallow'd blaze."

— Cobb, James (1756-1818)

Date: 1788, 1803

"Oh! may good angels, kindling in thy breast / The lamp of reason, guard thee from their snares!"

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)

Date: 1788

"Thou Christian emperor in whose generous breast / The light of pure devotion shone impress'd, / That sacred light descending from above, / An emanation of coelestial love; / With speed of light'ning spread the lambent ray, / Till realms of darkness kindled into day; / From God himself the spark ...

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1789

"Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its fire and every noble sentiment?"

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"Situated as we were, who could think that men should be so careless of the danger they were in? for, if the wind had but raised the swell as it was when the vessel struck, we must have bid a final farewel to all hopes of deliverance; and though, I warned the people who were drinking, and entreat...

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789, 1797

"Each motive base it [the soul] nobly spurns, / And bright with purest passion burns."

— Berkeley, George Monck (1763-1793)

Date: 1790

"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still / To ruin man, besets the female heart, / Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames / The hungry passions, that like arid flax / Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"Our minds, when young, are like tinder--they will catch any spark, whether emitted by Virtue or by Vice; and it is to be lamented, that the latter emits them more than the former."

— Trusler, John (1735-1820)

Date: 1791

"If you can but kindle in your mind any strong desire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)