Date: 1781

"Let matter then be allowed to furnish the first materials; the enlightened mind, which by its operations upon these discovers truth, and pursues it through all its distant connections, must have powers as far superiour to that which gave the first impression, as PHIDIAS is superiour to the marble."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781, 1810

"Triumphant love, with still superior art, / Engraves their wonders on the Painter's heart."

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1782

"In following her extraordinary director, her imagination had painted to her a scene such as she had so lately quitted, and prepared her to behold some family in distress, some helpless creature in sickness, or some children in want."

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

Date: 1782

"[A]cquainted ere you meet that you were to meet him no more, your heart would be all softness and grief, and at the very moment when tenderness should be banished from your intercourse, it would bear down all opposition of judgment, spirit, and dignity: you would hang upon every word, because ev...

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

Date: 1782

"Oh! the joy / Of young ideas painted on the mind, / In the warm glowing colours fancy spreads / On objects not yet known, when all is new, / And all is lovely!"

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1786

"Her pencil sickening Fancy throws away, / And weary Hope reclines upon the tomb."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"The same turn of mind which leads me to adore the Author of all Perfection--which leads me to conclude that he only can fill my soul; forces me to admire the faint image--the shadows of his attributes here below; and my imagination gives still bolder strokes to them."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1788

"Emmeline, at the picture her imagination drew of their united powers of desolation, shuddered involuntarily and sighed."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Frequently, your coldness, your unkindness, gives me again to despondence and every lovely prospect I had suffered my imagination to draw is lost in clouds and darkness.'

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Thee Queen of Shadows! [Fancy]--shall I still invoke, / Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil drew, / When on mine eyes the early radiance broke / Which shew'd the beauteous, rather than the true!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)