Date: 1796
"Your stanzas must not only chime, / But sense refin'd keep pace with rhime, / As with their paste, Cooks raisins mingle, / Rich thoughts must knead with sterile jingle."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: 1796
"WIT on all points is out of season, / It's use is to embroider reason."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: 1796
"Good sense like cloth, the ground-work place, / And then sow on your Wit and lace."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: 1796
"Some hurt themselves by flippant WIT, / As too much GAS, balloons will split;-- / With buoyant splendour, up they rise, / The spirit bursts, the bubble dies."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: 1796
"By Locke, true WIT is best defin'd, / Her pleasant pictures lure the mind; / Associations sudden rise, / And seize the fancy by surprise."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: 1796
"The effect [of wit on the mind] is strong,--because it's odd, / Like fire electric from a clod; / Or when fix'd air puts out a light, / Tho' vital makes it blaze more bright."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: 1796
"Discordant tho' the ideas be, / In Fancy's logic they agree; / As in the Ark by special grace, / Mice liv'd with Cats, yet throve apace."
preview | full record— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)
Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)
"But Nature had designed him to think as he pleased, and to speak as he thought: his piety was offended by the excessive worship of creatures; and the study of physics convinced him of the impossibility of transubstantiation, which is abundantly refuted by the testimony of our senses."
preview | full record— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)
Date: 1796
"Pervious to every beam, transparent Glass / Gives to the eye, all objects as they pass: / So the clear Soul, when justice claims her due, / Or honour calls,--sets all within, to view."
preview | full record— Bishop, Samuel (1731-1795)
Date: 1796
"The trial is dangerous; he is just at that period of life when the passions are most vigorous, unbridled, and despotic."
preview | full record— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)