Date: 1718
"May not this cheering Breath, this soothing Air, / Nourish too fast Vain-Glory's secret Root, / And make its rank pernicious Branches shoot, / Till on your Mind they baneful Blossoms spread, / And drop malignant Dews on Virtue's tender Head?"
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1722
"Zeno, and his scholars the Stoicks, took an odd fancy, that the passions were not interwoven with the constitution of man, and so were no part of his nature, but the blemishes and vicious excrescencies of the soul, and therefore ought to be entirely cut off; noxious weeds, that poison'd the mind...
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1745
"Soon as his Breast receiv'd the potent Ray, / Whate'er possest it, instantly gave way; / As in the Wood before the Lightning's Beam, / Perish the Leaves, and the whole Tree is Flame."
preview | full record— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)
Date: 1766, 1806
"From hands unscepter'd take the scornful blow? / Uproot the thoughts of glory as they grow?"
preview | full record— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)
Date: 1782
"As woodbine weds the plants within her reach, / Rough elm, or smooth-grain'd ash, or glossy beech, / In spiral rings ascends the trunk, and lays / Her golden tassels on the leafy sprays, / But does a mischief while she lends a grace, / Straitening its growth by such a strict embrace, / So love t...
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
"Happiest soil" may be found "in the serenest minds"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
"Peace be to those (such peace as earth can give,) / Who live in pleasure, dead even while they live; / Born capable indeed of heavenly truth, / But down to latest age from earliest youth, / Their mind a wilderness through want of care, / The plough of wisdom never entering there."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1785
Prejudice may take "deeper root" in "men of stronger minds"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1785
Learning may grow beneath Disciplines care, "a thriving and vigorous plant"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1785
Rural scenes may "nurse / The growing seeds of wisdom"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)