Date: 1700

"The Lamp of Life burns dimly in my Breast, / Soon from its beating toil my weary Heart will rest."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1700, 1717

"He, tho' from Heav'n remote, to Heav'n cou'd move, / With Strength of Mind, and tread th' Abyss above; / And penetrate with his interior Light / Those upper Depths, which Nature hid from Sight"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1700

"Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns, / A languid Flame that glows and dyes by Turns; / We see't a while, and but a little Way, / We Travel by its Light as Men by Day."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"But quickly Dying, [reason] forsakes us soon, / Like Morning Stars, that never stay till Noon."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1703, 1718

"Darkness, like that in Central Caves beneath, / Like that, which spreads the lonesome Walks of Death, / Where never Ray one Inroad made, / The Rebels Mind did swift invade."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1704

"As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass, / Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass; / A little we discover; but allow, / That more remains unseen, than Art can show: / So whilst our Mind it's Knowledge wou'd improve; / (It's feeble Eye intent on Things above) / High as We may, We lift our Rea...

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1705, 1712

"If Reason must not judge of Faith's true light, / How came our Guides to know the wrong from right, / Or, how their rev'rend Heads distinguish plain, / Betwixt the Bible and the Alchoran."

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: 1705, 1712

"Reason's the heav'nly Ray that lights the Soul, / And the Faith dark that does its Power controul."

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: 1706

"There glides the moon her shining way, / And shoots my heart thro' with a silver ray."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1709

"And tho' their Reason gave 'em dubious Light, / They trim'd the Lamp, and kept the Goal in sight"

— Gould, Robert (b. 1660?, d. in or before 1709)