Date: 1774

"Like a mirrour, it [memory] reflects faithful images of the objects formerly perceived by us, but can exhibit no form with which it is not in this manner supplied. It is in its nature a mere copier; it preserves scrupulously the very position and arrangement of the original sensations, and gives...

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"A strong mind sees things in their true proportions; a weak one views them through a magnifying medium, which, like the microscope, makes an elephant of a flea: magnifies all little objects, but cannot receive great ones."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1774

"A learned parson, rusting in his cell, at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, h...

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1774

"He magnifies all her real perfections in his imagination, and is either blind to her failings, or converts them into beauties."

— Gregory, John (1724-1773)

Date: 1774-1781

"When I am purified by the light of heaven my soul will become the mirrour of the world, in which I shall discern all abstruse secrets."

— Warton, Thomas, the younger (1728-1790)

Date: 1775-7

"It was this creature which confirmed me in the belief, that the partition betwixt instinct and reason was totally transparent; and that the animal and rational saw through very similar mirrors."

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

Date: 1775

"Of vulgar minds why nature shuns the praise, / And why to yours her every charm displays; / Whether the happy strokes of beauty shine / On fancy's mirror, or in HOGARTH's line; / Whether to habit, mode, or place confin'd, / Or fixt a general truth in every mind; / Discussions these will wing our...

— Shepherd, Richard (1731/2-1809)

Date: 1775

"Before the queen an oval mirror stands, / The curious labor of her active hands; / Ample its size; of wondrous texture wrought; / With pow'r endu'd, surpassing human thought."

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1775

"On this deceptive mirror FANCY gaz'd; / For in its field she saw whate'er she pleas'd: / Whate'er in thought her fertile brain design'd, / (The varying labours of her changeful mind,) / Whate'er she wills, within its orb she spies, / True to her wish the airy visions rise."

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1775

A new light may break in upon someone

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)