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...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1782

"Happiest soil" may be found "in the serenest minds"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

Prejudice may take "deeper root" in "men of stronger minds"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

Learning may grow beneath Disciplines care, "a thriving and vigorous plant"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

Rural scenes may "nurse / The growing seeds of wisdom"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

Virtue is like a "lowly creeping, modest and yet fair" plant that thrives most "where little seen"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

Man in society is like a flower: "'Tis there alone / His faculties expanded in full bloom/ Shine out"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)