Date: 1768

"And now elate in fancy's mirrour view, / Those hopeful plains where Mantua's poplars grew."

— Sterling, Joseph (fl. 1765-1794)

Date: 1768

"The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself and blackened; reduce them to their proper size and hue she overlooks them."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1772

"The Eye, that Orb of Light, which shews / The Features of the Mind, / Distinct, as faithful Mirrours yield / The Forms of human Kind."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1772

"In Fancy's Mirror, we but darkling see, / What must, hereafter, our Advantage be."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1775

A new light may break in upon someone

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)

Date: May 18, 1782, 1785

"Why is the countenance made a mask for the soul, when it should be a mirror, in which every eye might behold the true features of the mind, in the deformity of vice, or the loveliness of virtue!"

— Pilon, Frederick (1750-1788)

Date: 1790

"Indeed in the gross and complicated mass of human passions and concerns, the primitive rights of men undergo such a variety of refractions and reflections, that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: November 19, 1793

"But with the assistance of my motto, I hope at once to elucidate the observation, brighten the mirror of fancy, and solve the fluctuation of doubt."

— Boyd, Hugh (1746-1794)

Date: 1840-1

"Proud were my soul, to see its humble thought / On painting's mirror so divinely caught;"

— Moore, Thomas (1779-1852)