Date: 1790

"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still / To ruin man, besets the female heart, / Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames / The hungry passions, that like arid flax / Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"The passions heated, reason strives in vain; / Her empire's lost, and the distracted soul / Becomes the sport of devils, wholly bent / To turn and wind it in a world of sin."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"'Tis God's decree engrav'd upon the heart / To make us wait with patience, till he comes, / Undraws the curtain, and dispels the gloom, / And takes us to his bosom, and rewards / Our constancy and truth."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"'And these my sisters had not hearts of steel, / 'And might be griev'd at my delay"

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"Her sickly mind / Was ill at ease, though seated on the throne / of affluence and plenty."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"With a soldier's care / He plan'd the conquest of Ophelia's heart/ and won it"

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

"Is there a man whose iron heart is proof / Against such charms?"

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

'While we converse together, and I feel / 'Secret correction from the bolt of truth / 'Shot home, my better soul in triumph rides, / Borne on the wings of reason to her throne."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

One may have two souls "which, like two mighty Kings, / 'Ever contending for the sov'reignty, / 'Stir up sedition and revolt within"

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1790

A better soul "by revolution strange" may come to sit on her throne

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)