Date: 1706, 1709

"In vain the Harlot Pleasure spreads her Charms / To lull his Thoughts in Luxuries fair Lap / To sensual Ease, (the Bane of little Kings, / Monarchs whose waxen Images of Souls / Are moulded into Softness) still his Mind / Wears its own Shape."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1707

"How sad our State by Nature is! / Our Sin how deep it stains! / And Satan binds our captive Minds / Fast in his slavish Chains."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1707

"Why should we vex and grieve his love, / Who seals our souls to heavenly life?"

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1709

"O stamp upon my Soul / Some blissful Image of the fair Deceas'd / To call my Passions and my Eyes aside / From the dear breathless Clay."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1709, 1810

"Nothing can describe the soul: / 'Tis a region half unknown, / That has treasures of its own. / More remote from public view / Than the bowels of Peru; / Broader 'tis, and brighter far, / Than the golden Indies are; / Ships that trace the wat'ry stage / Cannot coast it in an age; / Harts, or hor...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1709, 1810

"Yet the silly wand'ring mind, / Loth to be too much confin'd, / Roves and takes her daily tours, / Coasting round the narrow shores, / Narrow shores of flesh and sense, / Picking shells and pebbles thence: / Or she sits at fancy's door, / Calling shapes and shadows to her, / Foreign visits still...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1709, 1810

"Never, never would she [the mind] buy / Indian dust, or Tyrian dye, / Never trade abroad for more, / If she saw her native store, / If her inward worth were known / She might ever live alone."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1709

"Crown me, and call the world my own, / The gold that binds my brows could ne'er my soul confine."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1734

"Search well, my soul, thro' all the dark recesses / Of nature and self-love, the plies, the folds, / And hollow winding caverns of the heart, / Where flattery hides our sins."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1734

"What worlds of worth lay crowded in that breast!"

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)