Date: 1768
"The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself and blackened; reduce them to their proper size and hue she overlooks them."
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1769
"The first reverend sage who delivered himself on this mysterious subject, having stroked his grey beard, and hemmed thrice with great solemnity, declared that the soul was an animal; a second pronounced it to be the number three, or proportion; a third contended for the number seven, or harmony;...
preview | full record— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)
Date: 1771
What "absurd judgment we form, in viewing objects through the falsifying medium of prejudice and passion"
preview | full record— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)
Date: 1771
"The optics of some minds are in so unlucky a perspective, as to throw a certain shade on every picture that is presented to them; while those of others (of which number was Harley) like the mirrors of the ladies, have a wonderful effect in bettering their complexions"
preview | full record— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)
Date: 1774, rev. 1787, 1779 in English
"What is the whole world to our hearts without love? It is the optic machine of the Savoyards without light." [More literal translation: "Wilhelm, what would the world mean to our hearts without love! What is a magic lantern without its lamp!"]
preview | full record— Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832)
Date: 1774, rev. 1787, 1779 in English
"Oh! that I could express, that I could describe, these great conceptions, with the same warmth, with the same energy, that they are impressed on my soul!" [Literal translation: "Oh could you only express, could you the breathe forth upon this paper all that lives so warm and full, that it might ...
preview | full record— Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832)
Date: w. 1782, 1786, 1816
"Having uttered this exclamation, Soliman raised his hands towards heaven, in token of supplication; and the Caliph discerned through his bosom, which was transparent as crystal, his heart enveloped in flames."
preview | full record— Beckford, William (1760-1844)