Date: Monday, March 3, 1712
"Death brings all Persons back to an Equality; and this Image of it, this Slumber of the Mind, leaves no Difference between the greatest Genius and the meanest Understanding: A Faculty of doing things remarkably praise-worthy thus concealed, is of no more use to the Owner, than a Heap of Gold to ...
preview | full record— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)
Date: 1718
"The Soul is darker than the deepest Cave, / Hard as the Rock, and colder than the Grave"
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: January 28, 1753
"I have heard that his understanding was rather hurt by the absolute retirement in which he lived, and indeed he had an imagination too lively to be trusted to itself; the treasures of it were inexhaustible, but for want of commerce with mankind he made that rich oar into bright but useless medal...
preview | full record— Montagu [née Robinson], Elizabeth (1718-1800)
Date: December 10, 1774; 1775
"He will pick up from dunghills what by a nice chymistry, passing through his own mind, shall be converted into pure gold; and, under the rudeness of Gothic essays, he will find original, rational, and even sublime inventions."
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789
"So poignant a mind in a vulgariz'd shell,/ Resembles a bucket of gold in a well; / 'Tis like Ceylon's best spice in a rude-fashion'd jar, / Or Comedy coop'd in a Dutch man of war."
preview | full record— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)
Date: w. 1794, 1797
"'Tis only those of purer clay / 'From sensual dross refined, / 'In whom the passions pleas'd obey / 'The God within the mind, / 'Who share my delegated aid, / 'Through Wisdom's golden mean convey'd / 'From the first source of sov'reign good."
preview | full record— Mason, William (1725-1797)