Date: 1785

"The effort rude to quench the cheering flame / Was mine, and e'en on Stella could I gaze / With sullen envy, and admiring pride, / Till, doubly roused by Montagu, the pair / Conspire to clear my dull, imprisoned sense, / And chase the mists which dimmed my visual beam."

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: 1785

"O, Montagu! forgive me, if I sing / red with the milder ray / Of soft humanity, and kindness bland: / So wide its influence, that the bright beams / Reach the low vale where mists of ignorance lodge, / Strike on the innate spark which lay immersed, / Thick-clogged, and almost quenched in total n...

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: 1788

"A ray of fire seemed to flash across the imagination of Delamere, and to inflame all his hopes."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Thou Christian emperor in whose generous breast / The light of pure devotion shone impress'd, / That sacred light descending from above, / An emanation of coelestial love; / With speed of light'ning spread the lambent ray, / Till realms of darkness kindled into day; / From God himself the spark ...

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1790

"When I knelt at the altar, the sacred flame of pure devotion glowed in my heart, and elevated my soul to sublimity."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"Mortified, exasperated by her conduct, I begun to suspect that some other emotion than resentment occasioned this disdain; and last of all jealousy--jealousy came to crown my misery--to light up all my passions into madness!"

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)