Date: 1704

"For, it is the opinion of choice virtuosi, that the brain is only a crowd of little animals, but with teeth and claws extremely sharp, and therefore cling together in the contexture we behold, like the picture of Hobbes's Leviathan, or like bees in perpendicular swarm upon a tr...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1772

"Not so blithe Corin, in his humble Cell, / Within his Bosom kinder Tenants dwell; / And though no Locks, or massy Bolts, secure / The slight Obstruction of his simple Door; / He sleeps at Ease, secure in Heaven's good Care, / Reckless of Villains, and exempt from Fear."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1786

"Young Fancy, oft in rainbow vest array'd, / Points to new scenes that in succession pass / Across the wond'rous mirror that she bears, / And bids thy unsated soul and wandering eye / A wider range o'er all her prospects take."

— Headley, Henry (1765-1788)

Date: w. 1821, 1840

"They may have perceived the beauty of those immortal compositions, simply as fragments and isolated portions: those who are more finely organized, or born in a happier age, may recognize them as episodes to that great poem, which all poets, like the co-operating thoughts of one great mind, have ...

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Date: w. 1821, 1840

"And the world would have fallen into utter anarchy and darkness, but that there were found poets among the authors of the Christian and chivalric systems of manners and religion, who created forms of opinion and action never before conceived; which, copied into the imaginations of men, became as...

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)