Date: 1778, 1779

"For, when I observed the artless openness, the ingenuous simplicity of her nature; when I saw that her guileless and innocent soul fancied all the world to be pure and disinterested as herself, and that her heart was open to every impression with which love, pity, or art might assail it."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"For oh, if this weak heart of mine had been penetrated with too deep an impression of his merit,--my peace and happiness had been lost for ever!"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: December 10, 1778; 1779

"Novelty makes a more forcible impression on the mind, than can be done by representation of what we have often seen before; and contrasts rouse the power of comparison by opposition."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1779

"I fear not / Your anger, Lord!--nay, I will gladly die, / If, dying, on your mind I can impress / Just horror for the--"

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1777, 1780

"The images that impressed his sleeping fancy remained strongly on his mind waking; but his reason strove to disperse them; it was natural that the story he had heard should create these ideas, that they should wait on him in his sleep, and that every dream should bear some relation to his deceas...

— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)

Date: 1777, 1780

"He made but little reply; but the impression sunk deep into his rancorous heart; every word in Edmund's behalf was like a poisoned arrow that rankled in the wound, and grew every day more inflamed."

— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)

Date: 1781

"When the outward object hath made its impression, and stamped the idea, the passive organ hath then done its part, and the rest is accomplished by the presiding mind."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781

"Let matter then be allowed to furnish the first materials; the enlightened mind, which by its operations upon these discovers truth, and pursues it through all its distant connections, must have powers as far superiour to that which gave the first impression, as PHIDIAS is superiour to the marble."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781

The "passive mind" may be (merely) impressed by substances and modes

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1781, 1810

"Triumphant love, with still superior art, / Engraves their wonders on the Painter's heart."

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)