Date: 1738, 1739
"The Mind, a Blank, when Life begins to flow, / But without Knowledge capable to know, / The God of Nature to our Care commits; / As to the Press we send th' unsully'd Sheets."
preview | full record— Bancks, John (1709-1751)
Date: 1738, 1739
"For tho' right Reason should her Beams display, / And dart new Lustre on our clouded Way; / Unless Philosophy, with antient Strength, / Support her Empire to Life's utmost Length; / Unless, in Passion's Spite, we dare be free, / (What Few have been, and Few will ever be) / That pristine Turn, th...
preview | full record— Bancks, John (1709-1751)
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"These flattering scenes / To this neglected labour court my song; / Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task / To paint the finest features of the mind, / And to most subtile and mysterious things / Give colour, strength, and motion."
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: June 1751, 1752
"Thou [Eagle] type of wit and sense confin'd, / Cramp'd by the oppressors of the mind, / Who study downward on the ground."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: 1760-7
"Could no such thing as favour and affection enter this sacred Court [of Conscience]:--Did Wit disdain to take a bribe in it;--or was asham'd to shew its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment?"
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1762-3
"With these grave fops, whose system seems / To give up certainty for dreams / The eye of man is understood / As for no other purpose good / Than as a door, through which, of course, / Their passage crowding objects force; / A downright usher, to admit / New-comers to the court of Wit."
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1763, 1770
"Yes, doubtless, steel'd--but still he show'd a heart, / As soft, as Cleopatra's softest part."
preview | full record— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)
Date: 1765, 1770
"Passions, and snow balls each by motion swell, / And Kitty finds her little heart rebel; / Full of desires she sighs for this, and that, / Her heart for ev'ry man goes pit-a-pat."
preview | full record— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)
Date: 1765, 1770
"We've some of hotter, some of colder make, / And some whose drowsy passions never wake."
preview | full record— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)