Date: 1680
"'Tis an Error as groundless as Vulgar, to think that there goes no more to the furnishing a Poet, than a Wind-mill in the Head, a Stream of Tattle, and convenient Confidence; whereas no Exercise of the Soul requires a more compos'd Thought, more sparingness of Words, more Modesty and Caution in ...
preview | full record— Tate, Nahum (c. 1652-1715)
Date: 1686, 1712
"Thus Vice and Virtue do my Soul divide, / Like a Ship tost between the Wind and Tide."
preview | full record— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730)
Date: 1700
"It is true, that the word Baptism is often taken in a Figurative and Allegorical Sense, to mean the INWARD BAPTISM, the Washing, or Cleansing of the Heart: But so is the word Washing also, as often, as Jer. iv. 14. &c. And there is scarce a Word in the World but is capable of many Figurative an...
preview | full record— Leslie, Charles (1650-1722)
Date: 1700
"E'er since which time, unhappy Lovers see, / Their Passion ne'er can be from Tempests free / It Ebbs and Flows, unfixt, not long the same, / A rowling Ocean of tumultuous Flame."
preview | full record— Hopkins, John (b. 1675)
Date: May 10, 1704
"Lastly, whoever pleases to look into the fountains of enthusiasm, from whence in all ages have eternally proceeded such fattening streams, will find the spring head to have been as troubled and muddy as the current."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1704
"Here it may not be amiss to add a few words upon the laudable practice of wearing quilted caps; which is not a matter of mere custom, humour, or fashion, as some would pretend, but an institution of great sagacity and use; these, when moistened with sweat, stop all perspiration, and by ...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1704
"Upon these and the like reasons, certain objectors pretend to put it beyond all doubt that there must be a sort of preternatural spirit, possessing the heads of the modern saints; and some will have it to be the heat of zeal working upon the dregs of ignorance, as othe...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1704
"There is a Brain that will endure but one Scumming; Let the Owner gather it with Discretion and manage his little Stock with Husbandry; but of all things, let him beware of bringing it under the Lash of his Betters; because, That will make it all bubble up into Impertinence, and he will find no ...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: May 10, 1704
"'It is certain,' said he, 'some grains of folly are of course annexed as part in the composition of human nature; only the choice is left us whether we please to wear them inlaid or embossed, and we need not go very far to seek how that is usually determined, when we remember it is with human fa...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1725
"I will give you the saddest Account you have ever yet been entertain'd with; but you must wrap your Heart in a Case of Adamant, or it will melt away in the hearing of it."
preview | full record— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)