Date: 1735-6

"The Persian fetters, that inthrall'd the mind, / Were turn'd to formal and apparent chains."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"His mental eye first launch'd into the deeps of boundless ether; where unnumber'd orbs, / Myriads on myriads, through the pathless sky / Unerring roll, and wind their steady way."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"In the soft plunder came that worst of plagues, / That pestilence of mind, a fever'd thirst / For the false joys which Luxury prepares."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"No turbid passions in her breast ferment."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"He, too, the fire of fancy feeds intense, / With all the train of passions thence derived: / Not kindling quick, a noisy transient blaze, / But gradual, silent, lasting, and profound."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"See! the full board / That steams disgust, and bowls that give no joy; / No truth invited there, to feed the mind; / Nor wit, the wine-rejoicing reason quaffs."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"Britons! be firm!--nor let corruption sly / Twine round your heart indissoluble chains!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"The steel of Brutus burst the grosser bonds / By Cæsar cast o'er Rome; but still remain'd / The soft enchanting fetters of the mind, / And other Cæsars rose."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

The young mind may be fed impurities and bloated with "scholastic jargon" or it may be "fill'd and nourish'd by the light of truth"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"Thus human life, unhinged, to ruin reel'd,
And giddy Reason totter'd on her throne."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)