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)
Date: 1759
"He compared reason to the sun, of which the light is constant, uniform, and lasting; and fancy to a meteor, of bright but transitory lustre, irregular in its motion, and delusive in its direction."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"From the very kind and warm Expressions of fatherly Fondness in this Letter, a small Ray of Hope darted into Lady Dellwyn's Mind."
preview | full record— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)
Date: 1759
"His mighty mind travelled round the intellectual world; and, with a more than eagle's eye, saw, and has pointed out blank spaces, or dark spots in it, on which the human mind never shone."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"Few authors of distinction but have experienced something of this nature, at the first beamings of their yet unsuspected Genius on their hitherto dark Composition: The writer starts at it, as at a lucid Meteor in the night; is much surprized; can scarce believe it true"
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: w. May, 1756; 1761
"For these, if I forget my patron's praise, / While bright ideas dance upon my mind, / Ne'er may these eyes behold auspicious days, / May friends prove faithless, and the Muse unkind."
preview | full record— Fawkes, Francis (1720-1777)
Date: 1761
"At length I wake to Reason and to thee; / Thy well-lov'd form, like the all-glorious Sun / After a gloom of horror dawns upon me, / And day breaks in on my benighted soul."
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)
Date: 1762-3
"Conjecture thus, That mental ignis fatuus, Led his poor brains a weary dance From France to England, hence to France."
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)