Date: w. 1610-11, 1623
"The charm dissolves apace, / And as the morning steals upon the night, / Melting the darkness, so their rising senses / Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle / Their clearer reason."
preview | full record— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Date: 1701
"Beauty's the least prevailing Snare to me; tho' her great Soul makes me admire her Person; yet were she deform'd, Virtue, like the Sun, wou'd shine through every Cloud."
preview | full record— Baker, Thomas (b. 1680-1)
Date: January 29, 1737
"Nay, the Light of Reason, which we so much boast of, what is it but a Dark-Lanthorn, which just serves to keep us from running our Nose against a Post, perhaps; but is no more able to lead us out of the dark Mists of Error and Ignorance, in which we are lost, than an Ignis fatuus would be to co...
preview | full record— Dodsley, Robert (1703-1764)
Date: 1745
"The Duties of his Day / Were all discharg'd, and gratefully enjoy'd / It's noblest Blessings; calm, as Evening Skies, / Was his pure Mind, and lighted up with Hopes / That open Heaven; when, for his last long Sleep / Timely prepar'd, a Lassitude of Life, / A pleasing Weariness of mortal Joy, / F...
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Clouds, all the while have hung upon thy brow, / Nor broke, nor parted by one gleam of joy."
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Darkly a project peers upon my mind, / Like the red moon when rising in the east, / Cross'd and divided by strange-colour'd clouds."
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)
Date: 1759
"He smiles contempt; as if some inward joy, / Like the sun lab'ring in a night of clouds, / Shot forth its glad'ning unresisted beams, / Chearing the face of woe."
preview | full record— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)
Date: 1787
"It is enough--my scruples are at an end--my prejudices, like clouds before the rising sun, vanish before the lights of your superior reason."
preview | full record— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)