Date: 1777
"As it is the character of Genius to penetrate with a lynx's beam into unfathomable abysses and uncreated worlds, and to see what is not, so it is the property of good sense to distinguish perfectly, and judge accurately what really is."
preview | full record— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Date: 1778, 1779
"Young, animated, entirely off your guard, and thoughtless of consequences, imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1779
"Sorrow may well possess the mind / That feeds where thorns and thistles grow"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1779
"Not Man, but thriftless Nature, be accused, / Who to seductions left our minds a prey-- / --Nay more, who doth herself ensnare us; / Hath hung us round with senses exquisite, / Hath planted in our hearts resistless passions, / The first to weaken, and the last to war / On poor, defenceless, nake...
preview | full record— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)
Date: 1779
"My mind, with wild contending passions torn, / Now, like a hart by worrying dogs forsook, / Sinks into apathy."
preview | full record— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)
Date: 1779
"Mean time, Editha send; some secret grief / Preys on her mind, and fain I would relieve / Her bosom'd anguish."
preview | full record— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)
Date: 1779, 1781
"When Horace says of Pindar, that he pours his violence and rapidity of verse, as a river swoln with rain rushes from the mountain; or of himself, that his genius wanders in quest of poetical decorations, as the bee wanders to collect honey; he, in either case, produces a simile; the mind is impr...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1779, 1781
"The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtilty surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seld...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1779, 1781
"The good and evil of Eternity are too ponderous for the wings of wit; the mind sinks under them in passive helplessness, content with calm belief and humble adoration."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1780
"Behold the frantick passion how it burns, / Like a wild beast breaks every tie, / Laughs at the Priest; the Legislator spurns, / And gives both heaven and earth the lye!"
preview | full record— Stevenson, John Hall (1717-1785)