Date: 1788

"Thou, who, for noble faults like these, too cold, / Whose vices n'er aspire, but stoop to gold, / That groveling passion of the sordid breast, / Like Aaron's serpent swallowing up the rest."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1788

"Thou Christian emperor in whose generous breast / The light of pure devotion shone impress'd, / That sacred light descending from above, / An emanation of coelestial love; / With speed of light'ning spread the lambent ray, / Till realms of darkness kindled into day; / From God himself the spark ...

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1803

"Ah, how the human mind wearies herself / With her own wanderings, and, involved in gloom / Impenetrable, speculates amiss!"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1803

"[W]rithing Mania sits on Reason's throne, /Or Melancholy marks it for her own"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1803

"Reason's empire o'er the world presides, / And man from brute, and man from man divides"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1803

"Charms with soft words, and sooths with amorous wiles, / Her iron-hearted Lord,--and Pluto smiles."

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1842

"The images of past delight / Have fleeted from her troubled sight, / And left no perfect form behind / On the dim mirror of the mind"

— Herbert, William (1778-1847)

Date: 1864

"Look, now, I melt a gourd-fruit into mash, / Add honeycomb and pods, I have perceived, / Which bite like finches when they bill and kiss,-- / Then, when froth rises bladdery, drink up all, / Quick, quick, till maggots scamper through my brain; / Last, throw me on my back i' the seeded thyme, / A...

— Browning, Robert (1812-1889)