Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"So the glad impulse of congenial powers, / Or of sweet sound, or fair proportion'd form, / The grace of motion, or the bloom of light, / Thrills through imagination's tender frame, / From nerve to nerve: all naked and alive / They catch the spreading rays: till now the soul / At length discloses...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Thou, smiling queen of every tuneful breast, / Indulgent Fancy from the fruitful banks / Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull / Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf / Where Shakespeare lies, be present."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1747

"Lull'd by the dear bewitching Sound, / Each jarring Passion's charm'd to rest; / Yet my Soul feels a pleasing Wound, / And sweet Disorders fill my Breast."

— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)

Date: 1747-8

"A man who is gross in a woman's company ought to be knocked down with a club: for, like so many musical instruments, touch but a single wire, and the dear souls are sensible all over "

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

Date: 1748

"Yet were the jarring passions tuned, / The soil from thorns and thistles clear, / Some latent virtue might appear."

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

Date: Tuesday, November 20, 1750

"Yet, if we consider the conduct of those sententious philosophers, it will often be found, that they repeat these aphorisms, merely because they have somewhere heard them, because they have nothing else to say, or because they think veneration gained by such appearances of wisdom, but that no id...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751

"Another Source of mutual Misapprehension on this Subject hath been 'the Introduction of metaphorical Expressions instead of proper ones.' Nothing is so common among the Writers on Morality, as 'the Harmony of Virtue'—'the Proportion of Virtue.'"

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: Saturday, January 25, 1752

"Whatever may be the native vigour of the mind, she can never form many combinations from few ideas, as many changes cannot be rung upon a few bells."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1754

"When temptations arise, and virtue staggers, let imagination sound the final trumpet, and judgment lay hold on eternal Life"

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

Date: 1754

"My dear Dr. Bartlett, said he, your soul is harmony: I doubt not but all these are in order"

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