Date: 1744, 1746
"Wide-stretching from these shores, / A people savage from remotest time, / A huge neglected empire, one vast mind, / By Heaven inspired, from gothic darkness call'd."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1745
Chiefly one Charm / He in his graceful Character observes: / That tho' his Passions burn with high Impatience, / And sometimes, from a noble Heat of Nature, / Are ready to fly off, yet the least Check / Of ruling Reason brings them back to Temper, / And gentle Softness."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1745
"But from my Soul to banish, / While weeping Memory there retains her Seat, / Thoughts which the purest Bosom might have cherish'd, / Once my Delight, now even in Anguish charming, / Is more, alas! my Lord, than I can promise."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1745
"The Man, whom Heaven appoints / To govern others, should himself first learn / To bend his Passions to the Sway of Reason."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1745
"But now not all my partial Heart can plead, / Shall ever shake th' unalterable Dictates / That tyrannize my Breast."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1745
"Behold the fatal Work of my dark Hand, / That by rude Force the Passions would command, / That ruthless sought to root them from the Breast; / They may be rul'd, but will not be opprest."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1746, 1793
"Then, then, exert thy utmost pow'r, / And teach me Being to endure; / Lest reason from the helm should start, / And lawless fury rule my heart; / Lest madness all my soul subdue, / To ask her Maker, What dost thou?"
preview | full record— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)
Date: 1746
"With inward view, / Thence on the ideal kingdom swift she turns / Her eye; and instant, at her powerful glance, / The obedient phantoms vanish or appear; / Compound, divide, and into order shift, / Each to his rank, from plain perception up / To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1748
"[A]nd in the mean time went to dress, with an intention of visiting Mrs. Snapper and Miss, whom I had utterly neglected and indeed almost forgot, since my dear Narcissa had resumed the empire of my soul."
preview | full record— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)
Date: 1748
"[F]ond anxiety, the glowing hopes, and chilling fears" may "rule [the] breast by turns"
preview | full record— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)