Date: 1785

"'Twixt shame and passion floats the struggling mind, / To Virtue now, and now to vice inclin'd, / This frowns refusal, that persuades to yield, / Till Reason falls, and Passion takes the field."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"Sov'reigns are subjects to the master part; / The ruling passion still maintains its post, / Monarch o'er monarchs, and the mortal's lost."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"Theron meanwhile believ'd it Love, fond Love enthron'd / Upon the mutual heart."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"From shadows thinner than the fleeting night / That floats along the vale or haply seems / To wrap the mountain in its hazy vest" Jealousy may conjure monsters in the chaos of its frenzied brain

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

Jealousy's monsters may hurl "frighted Reason from her throne, / And with her all the charities that wait / To grace her virtuous Court"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"Come then dear and decent favour, / Learn what thou wilt ne'er impart;/ Fix thy throne, and fix it ever, / In the regions of my heart."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

In spite of an aged face a lover may "Still rule the conquer'd heart to life's remotest hour."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"Then thro' her stores shall active mem'ry rove."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"I thought to see Dan. Pope a swan, / After his soul had done with man; / And many a tuneful soul, in love, / Cooing soft couplets in a dove; / Huge elephants I thought to find / The lodgings of the learned mind; / Pindar's pure soul in Eagle mould, / And Gray's on the same perch of gold; / Hammo...

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1785

"Ere Gold appear'd the Passions took their course; / Like whirldwinds swept the flowers of life along, / And crush'd the weak, and undermin'd the strong."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)