Date: 1749

"Yet should thy Soul indulge the gen'rous Heat, / Till captive Science yields her last Retreat / Should Reason guide thee with her brightest Ray, / And pour on misty Doubt resistless Day; / Should no false Kindness lure to loose Delight, / Nor Praise relax, nor Difficulty fright; / Should temptin...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, April 24, 1750

"Those sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence must shew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his po...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, September 22, 1750

"The thoughts that entered my soul were too strong to be diverted, and too piercing to be endured; but such violence cannot be lasting, the storm subsided in a short time, I wept, retired, and grew calm."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751

"There are few among Mankind, who have not been often struck with Admiration at the Sight of that Variety of Colours and Magnificence of Form, which appear in an Evening Rainbow. The uninstructed in Philosophy consider that splendid Object, not as dependent on any other, but as being possessed of...

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1752, 1791

"Thy appetites in easy tides / (As reason's luminary guides) / Soft flow--no wind can work them to a storm, / Correctly quick, dispassionately warm."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1752

"Weak, impotent, yet wishing to be free, / You are by much a greater Slave, than me; / A Slave, to ev'ry Gust that shakes your Mind, / Your Eyes broad open, and your Senses blind."

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [pseud.]

Date: Tuesday, August 14, 1753

"But from the opposite errour, from torpid despondency, can come no advantage; it is the frost of the soul, which binds up all its powers, and congeals life in perpetual sterility."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1755

"Thy Words have shot like Lightning through my Frame; / And all my Soul's on Fire!"

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1755

"Hence--to thy Chamber, till returning Reason / Hath calm'd this Tempest."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1759

"Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)