Date: January 29, 1737

"Nay, the Light of Reason, which we so much boast of, what is it but a Dark-Lanthorn, which just serves to keep us from running our Nose against a Post, perhaps; but is no more able to lead us out of the dark Mists of Error and Ignorance, in which we are lost, than an Ignis fatuus would be to co...

— Dodsley, Robert (1703-1764)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Some Men’s Wit is like a dark Lanthorn, which serves their own Turn, and guides them their own Way; but is never known (according to the Scripture Phrase) either to 'shine forth before Men', or to 'glorifie their Father who is in Heaven'."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1738, 1739

"For tho' right Reason should her Beams display, / And dart new Lustre on our clouded Way; / Unless Philosophy, with antient Strength, / Support her Empire to Life's utmost Length; / Unless, in Passion's Spite, we dare be free, / (What Few have been, and Few will ever be) / That pristine Turn, th...

— Bancks, John (1709-1751)

Date: 1738, 1739

"Reason, like Virtue, comes but with her Shade."

— Bancks, John (1709-1751)

Date: 1739

"Fill our whole Souls with heav'nly Light, / Melt with Seraphick Fire."

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"But my Weakness of Body made me move so slowly, that it gave Time for a little Reflection, a Ray of Grace, to dart in upon my benighted Mind; and so, when I came to the Pond-side, I sat myself down on the sloping Bank, and began to ponder my wretched Condition: And thus I reason'd with myself."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

A mother may "watch the beamy Dawnings of Reason" in her child and direct his or her "little Passions, as they shew themselves, to this or that particular Point of Benefit and Use"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741

"I [the mind] did but step out, on some weighty affairs, / To visit last night, my good friends in the stars, / When, before I was got half as high as the moon, / You despatched Pain and Languor to hurry me down; / Vi & Armis they seized me, in midst of my flight, / And shut me in caverns as dark...

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1741

"The very Greek Heathens by the Light of Reason were taught to say, [GREEK CHARACTERS], and the Latins, A Jove principium, Musae."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1742

"Warnings point out our danger; gnomons, time: / As these are useless when the sun is set; / So those, but when more glorious Reason shines. / Reason should judge in all; in Reason's eye, / That sedentary shadow travels hard."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)