Date: 1765

"Warm in the raptures of divine desire, / Burst the soft chain that curbs th'aspiring mind."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1767

"One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1770

"But this faculty [Reason] has been much perverted, often to vile, and often to insignificant purposes; sometimes chained like a slave or malefactor, and sometimes soaring in forbidden and unknown regions."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1774

"Oh! what is liberty regain'd, / When endless chains the mind controul?"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1789

"Far nobler prize my heart constrains, / Yielding to soft controul; / Far other beauty binds in chains / The magnet of my soul."

— Colvill, Robert (d. 1788)

Date: 1791

"Your resolution to obey your father I sincerely approve; but do not accustom yourself to enchain your volatility by vows; they will sometime leave a thorn in your mind, which you will, perhaps, never be able to extract or eject."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1791

"His supposed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous powers of his understanding. He was confined by a chain which early imagination and long habit made him think massy and strong, but which, had he ventured to try, he could at once have snapt asunder."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1799

"I saw in you the heroism of an ancient Roman .... your chains then dropped from your wrists, and fixed my heart."

— Heron, Robert (c.1765-1807)

Date: 1808

"With active force the comprehensive mind / Breaks custom's chains and prejudice's ties, / And wide in sportive curves unbounded flies."

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)

Date: 1808

"Draw close those ties, so fine and yet so strong, / That gently lead the willing soul along, / Nor crush beneath oppression's iron rod / The kindred image of the parent God; / Nor think that rigour's galling chains can bind / The native force of the superior mind."

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)