Date: 1790

"Our minds, when young, are like tinder--they will catch any spark, whether emitted by Virtue or by Vice; and it is to be lamented, that the latter emits them more than the former."

— Trusler, John (1735-1820)

Date: December 1790

"But it is not that enthusiastic flame which in Greece and Rome consumed every sordid passion: no, self is the focus; and the disparting rays rise not above our foggy atmosphere."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1791

"This is that incense of the heart / Whose fragrance smells to heaven."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: 1791

"In the rich realms of polished taste, / Where judgment penetrates to find / The treasures of the unwrought mind, / Where conversation's ardent spirit / Refines from dross the ore of merit, / Where emulation aids the flame / And stamps the sterling bust of fame."

— West, Jane (1758-1852)

Date: 1791

"[I]mpetuous Passion's flame" may be blown to rage

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1789, 1791, 1799

"When Air's pure essence joins the vital flood, / And with phosphoric Acid dyes the blood, / Your Virgin trains the transient Heat dispart, / And lead the soft combustion round the heart; / Life's holy lamp with fires successive feed"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1793

"Law may be supposed to have been constructed in the tranquil serenity of the soul, a suitable monitor to check the inflamed mind with which the recent memory of ills might induce us to proceed to the exercise of coercion"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"Perish the masses for a burning soul, / That never yet extinguish'd half a coal!"

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1793

"Their mind is not always prepared to pour forth its burning ideas; it is kindled by the flame which it strikes from the collision of the works of great writers."

— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)

Date: 1794

"She hastily put the papers from her; but the words, which had roused equally her curiosity and terror, she could not dismiss from her thoughts. So powerfully had they affected her, that she even could not resolve to destroy the papers immediately; and the more she dwelt on the circumstance, the ...

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