Date: 1700, 1717
"This Helenus to great AEneas told, / Which I retain, e'er since in other Mould: / My Soul was cloath'd; and now rejoice to view / My Country Walls rebuilt, and Troy reviv'd anew, / Rais'd by the fall: Decreed by Loss to Gain; / Enslav'd but to be free, and conquer'd but to reign."
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1712
"The watchful Centinels at ev'ry Gate, / At ev'ry Passage to the Senses wait."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1723
"Mine [heart] open lies, without the least Defence; / No Guard of Art; but its own Innocence; / Under which Fort it could fierce Storms endure: / But from thy Wit I find no Fort secure."
preview | full record— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)
Date: Monday, March 30, 1724
"So weak is the Frailty of Human Nature, that we can never be too secure, tho' arm'd with the sublimest Vertue, against the repeated Attacks of so many Passions, as constantly besiege us; and, tho' the Garrison of the Mind may be never so well provided with all Means of Resistance, the greatest o...
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1736
"Then, Madam, reply'd Broscomin, sullenly, I shall waste no farther Time in attacking so impregnable a Fortress: this unconquerable Mind shall be left to its own liberty; and I must content myself with the means which more indulgent Heaven has given me of becoming Master of your more defenceless ...
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1740
"Thus lawless conquerors our town restore, / With the sad marks of their inhuman power; / No art, nor time, such ravage can repair; / No superstructure can these ruins bear."
preview | full record— Dixon, Sarah (1671/2-1765)
Date: 1742
"Speech ventilates our intellectual fire; / Speech burnishes our mental magazine, / Brightens for ornament, and whets for use."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1745
"Imagination is the Paphian shop, / Where feeble Happiness, like Vulcan, lame, / Bids foul Ideas, in their dark recess, / And hot as hell, (which kindled the black fires,) / With wanton art, those fatal arrows form / Which murder all thy time, health, wealth, and fame."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: Saturday, November 3, 1750
"When we have heated our zeal in a cause, and elated our confidence with success, we are naturally inclined to persue the same train of reasoning, to establish some collateral truth, to remove some adjacent difficulty, and to take in the whole comprehension of our system. As a prince in the ardou...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1761
"While Frugi liv'd / Thy sorrows kept possession of my heart, / And Love receded from the stronger guest; / Now his dear image rises to my view / So piteously array'd, with such a train / Of tender thoughts assails this shatter'd frame, / That Reason quits her fort, and flies before, / To the las...
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)