Date: 1751

The hand one writes may be "like her mind, solid and above all flourish"

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

Date: January 3, 1750-51, 1807

"Live then upon the paper, and upon my memory, every stroke of his pen! For there is no gall in his ink, but only precious balm, and honied drops of salutary counsel."

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1751

"I proceeded therefore--That I loved Familiar-letter-writing, as I had more than once told her, above all the species of writing: It was writing from the heart (without the fetters prescribed by method or study) as the very word 'Cor-respondence' implied"

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

Date: 1752, 1790

Apollo's "sacred fire" inspires the bard's breast, "Like the fair empty sheet he hangs to view, / Void, and unfurnish'd, till inspir'd by you."

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1752, 1790

"O let one beam, one kind inlightning ray / At once upon his mind and paper play!"

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1752, 1790

"The yielding paper's pure, but vacant breast, / By her fair hand and flowing pen imprest, / At ev'ry touch more animated grows."

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1752

"Yet hold me near Thee; set me as a Seal, / Deep on thy dear dear Heart!"

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1752

"Go, Christian! with th' endearing Pledges seal'd / Fresh on thy Soul, resembling Pattern show/ How Jesus liv'd"

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1752, 1791

"Not all the volumes on thy shelf, / Are worth that single volume, Self."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: 1752, 1791

"Life's records rise on ev'ry side, / And Conscience spreads those volumes wide; / Which faithful registers were brought / By pale-ey'd Fear and busy Thought. / Those faults which artful men conceal, / Stand here engrav'd with pen of steel, / By Conscience, that impartial scribe!"

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)