Date: 1755
"That it will immediately become popular I have not promised to myself: a few wild blunders, and risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly with laughter, and harden ignorance in contempt; but useful diligence will at last prevail, and...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1755
"Thou, superior to the Frowns / Of Fate, can'st pour thy Sunshine o'er the Soul, / And brighten Woe to Rapture!"
preview | full record— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Date: 1755
"Oh let me now thy tender Mercy find, / With thy free Grace illuminate my Mind, / Let me no more the Slave of Passion be, / But turn my wand'ring Thoughts to Heav'n and thee."
preview | full record— Masters, Mary (1694-1771)
Date: March 1756
"The thought-kindling light, / Thy prime production, darts upon my mind / Its vivifying beams, my heart illumines, / And fills my soul with gratitude and Thee."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: 1758
"Let inward beauty charm the mental sight; / Let godlike Reason, beaming bright, / Chase far away each gloomy shade, / Till VIRTUE's heav'nly form display'd / Alone shall captivate my soul, / And her divinest love possess me whole!"
preview | full record— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)
Date: 1758
"But when, in Parties of Conversation, she glows by the Beams of Reason, then command her [the soul] to speak from Inspiration and utter the Oracles of Justice [like a Grasshopper]."
preview | full record— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date: 1759
"Therefore dive deep into thy bosom; learn the depth, extent, biass, and full fort of thy mind; contract full intimacy with the Stranger within thee; excite, and cherish every spark of Intellectual light and heat, however smothered under former negligence, or scattered through the dull, dark m...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"A Genius implies the rays of the mind concenter'd, and determined to some particular point; when they are scatter'd widely, they act feebly, and strike not with sufficient force, to fire, or dissolve, the heart."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"For, consider, since an impartial Providence scatters talents indifferently, as thro' all orders of persons, so thro' all periods of time; since, a marvelous light, unenjoy'd of old, is pour'd on us by revelation, with larger prospects extending our Understanding, with brighter objects enriching...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"When we read, let our imagination kindle at their charms; when we write, let our judgment shut them out of our thoughts; treat even Homer himself, as his royal admirer was treated by the cynic; bid him stand aside, nor shade our Composition from the beams of our own genius; for nothing Original ...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)