Date: 1773

"Think'st thou, had Fancy's mirror struck his sight, / And brought thy too degenerate deeds to light; / Had shewn thee curst to such a vicious race, / Whose very breath contaminates the place: / How would his manly heart with grief have died / T'have seen this fatal barrier to his pride?"

— Anonymous

Date: 1779

"Let me exhort ye then to open the locks of your hearts with the nail of repentance: burst asunder the fetters of your beloved lusts, mount the chimney of hope, take from hence the bar of good resolution, break through the stone wall of despair, and all the strong holds in the dark entry of the v...

— Anonymous

Date: August, September, and October, 1779

"Thus it happened with me on the present occasion; and I found my ideas suddenly drawn from the sermon in my hand and (in their vagabond way) hurrying over the birth, parentage, education, and situation of the reverend penman."

— Anonymous

Date: August, September, and October, 1779

"At his entrance, his little deal desk mounted on his only table, stood invitingly before him: there was inspiration in the sight; he snatched wildly a cracked ink-horn from a shelf which contained nothing else, but a few mouldy crusts, and a few mouldy books; flourished his pen, looked up a mome...

— Anonymous

Date: October, 1784

"HUMAN thoughts are like the planetary system, where many are fixed, and many wander, and many continue for ever unintelligible; or rather like meteors, which generally lose their substance with their lustre."

— Anonymous

Date: October, 1784

"The understanding is like the sun, which gives light and life to the whole intellectual world; but the memory, regarding those things only that are past, is like the moon, which is new and full and has her wane by turns."

— Anonymous

Date: October, 1784

"Peace is the calm which succeeds the tempest, and hushes the billows of interest and passion to rest."

— Anonymous

Date: October, 1784

"Every man may learn the elements of geography, which is the noblest science in the world, from an attention to the temperature of his own mind."

— Anonymous

Date: October, 1784

"They who take self-love for their guide, ride in the paths of partiality, on the horse of adulation, to the judge of falsehood; but he who prefers the mandate of reason, rides in the way of probability on the courser of prudence."

— Anonymous

Date: October, 1784

"Prudence through the ground of misery cuts a river of patience, where the Mind swims in boats of tranquillity along the streams of life, until she arrives at the haven of death, where all streams meet."

— Anonymous