Date: 1704

"Who then wou'd court the Pomp of guilty Power, / When the Mind sickens at the weary Shew, / And flies to temporary Death for Ease."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1720

"Severity makes more Hypocrites than any Sort of Discipline; streight lacing the Body may make us good Shapes, but there's no streight lacing our Minds."

— Shadwell, Charles (fl. 1692-1720)

Date: 1722

One's head and heart may be "on the rack" about something worrisome

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1726

One may be galled "with Reproaches and Contempt, more heavy, and corroding into my Soul, than the Load and Rust of my Irons eating into my Flesh? "

— Southerne, Thomas (1659-1746)

Date: 1739

"Ye Angels speak! / For ye alone are like her; or present / Such Visions pictur'd to the nightly Eye / Of Fancy trans'd in Bliss."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1739

"How poor thy Pow'r, how empty is thy Happiness, / When such a Wretch, as I appear to be, / Can ride thy Temper, harrow up thy Form, / And stretch thy Soul upon the Rack of Passion."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1739

"Where lives the Man whose Reason slumbers not?"

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)