Date: 1677

"Or else unto those Birds (aspiring) rare, / The Soul contemplative I may compare, / Of whom King David worthily attests, / That by the Holy Altar build their Nests: / So Meditation's said in holy Story, / To build her Nest about the Throne of Glory."

— Speed, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. 1679?)

Date: w. 1677, 1702

"Vain wandring Thoughts, that crowd within my Breast / Do oft obstruct my Soul from Solid Rest; / like to vagrant Clouds, obscure the Mind / Which should to serious watching be inclin'd."

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: w. 1679, 1702

"The Sun of Righteousness, which when it shines / With its Resplendent Conqu'ring Ray, refines / The drossy Nature; rightly purifies / The Heart, consuming all Impurities."

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: w. 1684, 1702

"These rugged Walls, less grievous are to me, / Than those bedeck'd with curious Arras be / T'a guilty Conscience; to a wounded Heart, / A Palace cannot palliate that smart: / Tho' drunk with Pleasure, dull with Opiates, / Some seem as Senseless of their sad Estates, / Till on their Dying-Beds Co...

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: 1742

"He binds my Name upon his Arm, / And seals it on his Heart."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1773

"At this still hour the self-collected soul / Turns inward, and beholds a stranger there / Of high descent, and more than mortal rank."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

The soul contains "An embryo of God, a spark of fire divine / Which must burn on for ages."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Seiz'd in thought / On fancy's wild and roving wing I sail, / From the green borders of the peopled earth, / And the pale moon, her duteous fair attendant; / From solitary Mars; from the vast orb / Of Jupiter, whose huge gigantic bulk / Dances in ether like the lightest leaf; / To the dim verge,...

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"But now my soul unus'd to stretch her powers / In flight so daring, drops her weary wing, / And seeks again the known accustom'd spot, / Drest up with sun, and shade, and lawns, and streams, / A mansion fair and spacious for its guest, / And full replete with wonders."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)