Date: 1745
"Soon as his Breast receiv'd the potent Ray, / Whate'er possest it, instantly gave way; / As in the Wood before the Lightning's Beam, / Perish the Leaves, and the whole Tree is Flame."
preview | full record— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)
Date: 1745
"I would rather compare it [the mind] to a Seed, which contains all the Stamina of the future Plant, and all those Principles of Perfection, to which it aspires in its After-growth, and regularly arrives by gradual Stages, unless it is obstructed in its Progress by external Violence."
preview | full record— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)
Date: 1745
"He says that, tho' he were not nobly born, / Nature has form'd him noble, generous, brave, / Truely magnanimous, and warmly scorning / Whatever bears the smallest Taint of Baseness: / That every easy Virtue is his own; / Not learnt by painful Labour, but inspir'd, / Implanted in his Soul."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1745
"Behold the fatal Work of my dark Hand, / That by rude Force the Passions would command, / That ruthless sought to root them from the Breast; / They may be rul'd, but will not be opprest."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1746
"Deep to the root / Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields / And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose, / Blast Fancy's bloom, and wither e'en the soul."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1746
Yet the kind source of every gentle art, / And all the soft civility of life: / Raiser of human kind! by Nature cast, / Naked, and helpless, out amid the woods / And wilds, to rude inclement elements; / With various seeds of art deep in the mind / Implanted, and profusely pour'd around / Material...
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1746, 1753
"So, from injected thought, shoots passion's growth; / No sprout spontaneous, no chance child, of sloth: / Idea lends it root-- firm, on touch'd minds, / Fancy, (swift planter!) first, th' impression binds; / Shap'd in conception's mould, nature's prompt skill / Bids subject nerves obey th' inspi...
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1746, 1753
"Mourn it, ye sons of spleen, whose hands (mistaught) / Tore up this seed of sense, this plant of thought / Whence reasoning shoots might bloom life's garden o'er, And weedy wildness choak her walks no more."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1746
Self-love may expand "like the generous vine" so that "Another's joy becomes as full as thine"
preview | full record— Ruffhead, James
Date: 1748, 1777
"The passion for philosophy, like that for religion, seems liable to this inconvenience, that, though it aims at the correction of our manners, and extirpation of our vices, it may only serve, by imprudent management, to foster a predominant inclination, and push the mind, with more determined re...
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)