Date: 1685

"These bugbears of the mind, this inward hell, / No rays of outward sunshine can dispel; / But nature and right reason must display / Their beams abroad, and bring the darksome soul to day."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1685

"Sure there's a lethargy in mighty woe, / Tears stand congealed, and cannot flow; / And the sad soul retires into her inmost room"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1684 [1685]

"Would I could coin my very heart to gold!"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

"While pride and pomp allure, and plenteous ease, / That is, till man's predominant passions cease, / Admire no longer at my slow increase."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

"But, when arrived at last to human race, / The Godhead took a deep considering space; / And, to distinguish man from all the rest, / Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast; / And mercy mixt with reason did impart, / One to his head, the other to his heart; / Reason to rule, but mercy to f...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

Man's mind like his "outward form" charmed the eyes of the "wondering herd"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

"Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay; / So drossy, so divisible are they, / As would but serve pure bodies for allay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

"Conscience is the Royalty and Prerogative of every Private man. He is absolute in his own Breast, and accountable to no Earthly Power, for that which passes only betwixt God and Him."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1692

"But when dilated organs let in day / To the young soul, and gave it room to play, / At his first aptness, the maternal love / Those rudiments of reason did improve."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1692

"The tender age was pliant to command; / Like wax it yielded to the forming hand: / True to the artificer, the laboured mind / With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)