Date: 1691

"What shou'd I tell you of his Soul, since his Body is the very Picture on't, and if you know one, you can't miss o' t'other among a thousand: 'Tis like Gresham-Colledge, or the Anatomy-School at Leyden, hung round with a thousand Knick-knacks that rambled thither, some of 'em half the World...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1696

"My Lord, said that charming Maid, were I to behold a Man Masculine, yet Beautiful, Great, yet truly Brave; A Prince whose Virtues, brighter than his Diadems, appear; one more glorious than boundless Fancy can to the thinking Mind depaint; and, not convinc'd by signal proofs, his heart inclin'd, ...

— Pix, Mary (c.1666-1720)

Date: 1705

"It is not to be doubted but that these things, altho' purely material, contribute to the Beauty and Nicety of Wit, because the Soul, when it is enclos'd in the Body, depends on the Organs, and those, when well dispos'd, are of much greater Aid to it in the performance of its Duty. Suppose a Pain...

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1736

"Philosophy was incapable of affording her any Relief, and all her Reason served only to paint the Unhappiness of her Condition in the stronger Colours."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"And all this time improve myself too, not only in Science, but in Nature, by tracing in the little Babes what all Mankind are, and have been, from Infancy to riper Years"

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

Date: 1744

"[T]he charming image of a city's brightest ornament" may be engraven on the heart by "the god of love ... in characters too indelible ever to be erased"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1751

"She slept longer than usual the next Morning, and it seemed as if some golden Dream was pictured in her Fancy"

— Coventry, (William) Francis Walter (1725-1753/4)

Date: 1752

"What a Happiness have you painted to my Imagination!"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1763

"My tears streamed afresh when I beheld him, when I remembered the sweet hours we had passed together, the gay scenes which hope had painted to our hearts; I wept over the friend I had so loved, I pressed his cold hand to my lips."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1778, 1779

"Your impatience to fly to a place which your imagination has painted to you in colours so attractive, surprizes me not; I have only to hope that the liveliness of your fancy may not deceive you: to refuse, would be to raise it still higher."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)