Date: 1706
"And therefore wert thou bred to virtuous Knowledge, / And Wisdom early planted in thy Soul; / That thou might'st know to rule thy fiery Passions, / To bind their Rage, and stay their headlong Course."
preview | full record— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)
Date: 1728
"When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows, / How vainly Reason would its Force oppose; / Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind, / She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1731
"Proud of Dominion, yet enslav'd to Fear, / Kings who love Blood, thro' one long Tempest steer, / While the calm Monarch, who with Smiles controuls, / Roots his safe Empire, and is King of Souls."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1744, 1753
"Thus my fancied Friends became my Plagues, and my real ones, by their Sufferings, tore up my Heart by the Roots, and frightened me into the bearing the insolent Persecutions of the others--I found my Mind in such Chains as are much worse than any Slavery of the Body."
preview | full record— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)
Date: 1751
"Oh had I known it sooner, engaged as I then was to one, who well deserved my love, could I have guessed miss Betsy Thoughtless was the contriver of that tender fraud, I know not what revolution might have happened in my heart! the empire you had there, was never totally extirpated, and kindness ...
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1752
"Ambition scarce ever produces any Evil, but when it reigns in cruel and savage Bosoms; and Avarice seldom flourishes at all but in the basest and poorest Soil."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1753
"He combats Passion, rooted in the Soul, / Whose Powers at once delight ye and controul; / Whose Magic Bondage each lost Slave enjoys, / Nor wishes Freedom, tho' the Spell destroys."
preview | full record— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)
Date: 1765
"Thro' rooted vice my spirits fail, / Which o'er my heart an empire wins, / O let thy mercy countervail / To cover all our sins."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: 1800
"So the schemes / Rais'd by fond Hope in youth's unclouded morn, / While sanguine youth enjoys delusive dreams, / Experience withers; till scarce one remains / Flattering the languid heart, where only Reason reigns!"
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)