Date: 1743

"Darkness the curtain drops o'er life's dull scene; / 'Tis the kind hand of Providence stretch'd out / 'Twixt man and vanity; 'tis Reason's reign, / And Virtue's too; these tutelary shades / Are man's asylum from the tainted throng."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"It pleads exemption from the laws of Sense; / Considers Reason as a leveller; / And scorns to share a blessing with the crowd."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Is this the cause Death flies all human thought? / Or is it Judgment by the Will struck blind, / (That domineering mistress of the soul,) / Like him so strong, by Delilah the fair?"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Reason is guiltless! Will alone rebels."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"What, in that stubborn heart if I should find / New, unexpected witnesses against thee? / Ambition, Pleasure, and the Love of Gain!"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Ambition, Pleasure, and the Love of Gain! / Canst thou suspect that these, which make the Soul / The slave of earth, should own her heir of heaven?"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"The witnesses are heard; the cause is o'er; / Let Conscience file the sentence in her court, / Dearer than deeds that half a realm convey."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Like the proud Eastern [Nebuchadnezzar], struck by Providence, / What, though our passions are run mad, and stoop, / With low terrestrial appetite, to graze / On trash, on toys, dethroned from high desire?"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"In Lust's dominion, and in Passion's storm, / Truth's system broken, scatter'd fragments lay: / (As light in chaos, glimmering through the gloom)."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Sense! take the rein; blind Passion! drive us on; / And, Ignorance! befriend us on our way; / Ye new, but truest patrons of our peace! Yes; give the Pulse full empire; live the Brute, / Since as the Brute we die."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)