Date: 1777
"Col. Dormer, though he knew the human heart, had never yet thought of taking his nieces in more active scenes of life: he had fallen into the common mistake of people past the meridian of their days, who, feeling tranquillity their greatest good, do not sufficiently reflect that it is insipid at...
preview | full record— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)
Date: 1777
"She saw something like just drawing in the dark shades of his pencil, though the lines seemed a good deal exaggerated: she reflected, she doubted; but, after settling a balance in her mind, the found her own scale preponderate."
preview | full record— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)
Date: 1782
All "ideas follow each other in our minds in a regular and uniform succession, not unlike the tickings of a clock; and by that means all objects are presented to our imaginations in the same progressive manner: and if any vary much from that destined pace, by too rapid, or too slow a motion, they...
preview | full record— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)
Date: 1784
"Thy piercing thought / Unaided saw each movement of the mind, / As skilful artists view the small machine, / The secret springs and nice dependencies, / And to thy mimic scenes, by fancy wrought / To such a wond'rous shape, th'impassion'd breast / In floods of grief, or peals of laughter bow'd, ...
preview | full record— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)
Date: 1785
"I tread his deck, / Ascend his topmast, through his peering eyes / Discover countries, with a kindred heart / Suffer his woes and share in his escapes, / While fancy, like the finger of a clock, / Runs the great circuit, and is still at home."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1786
"Dismiss their cares when they dismiss their flock, / Machines themselves, and govern'd by a clock."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1788
"With horns, and tail, and hoofs that make folks start; / And in my breast a millstone for a heart!"
preview | full record— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)
Date: 1789
"For of calamity so long the prey, / Imagination now has lost her powers, / Nor will her fairy loom again essay / To dress affliction in a robe of flowers."
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1789
"Hope and fear are the two grand springs by which that curious machine, the human mind, is actuated; and to deprive Virtue of that support which she receives from their influence and operation, and to substitute in their room a sense of honour, or a love of moral beauty and order, is to betray th...
preview | full record— Belsham, William (1752-1827)