Date: 1755, 1836

"Should man through Nature solitary roam, / His will his sovereign, every where his home, / What force would guard him from the lion's jaw?"

— Grainger, James (1721-1766)

Date: 1757, 1769

"The king of men to sudden rage resign'd, / At once, the empire of his mighty mind."

— Wilkie, William (1721-1772)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"Within my bosom reigns another lord; / Honour, sole judge and umpire of itself."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"Sad fear and melancholy still divide / The empire of my breast with hope and joy."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: 1757, 1777

"However we may be hurried away by the spectacle; whatever dominion the senses and imagination may usurp over the reason, there still lurks at the bottom a certain idea of falsehood in the whole of what we see"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1757, 1777

"But TERENCE and VIRGIL maintain an universal, undisputed empire over the minds of men."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1757

"This in the mean time is obvious, that the empire of all religious faith over the understanding is wavering and uncertain, subject to every variety of humour, and dependent on the present incidents, which strike the imagination."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1759

"Sentiments, designs, affections, though it is from these that according to cool reason human actions derive their whole merit or demerit, are placed by the great Judge of hearts beyond the limits of every human jurisdiction, and are reserved for the cognizance of his own unerring tribunal."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1759

"The thoughts of that admiration, whose effects they were never to feel, played about their hearts, banished from their breasts the strongest of all natural fears, and transported them to perform actions which seem almost beyond the reach of human nature."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1759

"They are upon these occasions commonly cited as the ultimate foundations of what is just and unjust in human conduct; and this circumstance seems to have misled several very eminent authors, to draw up their systems in such a manner, as if they had supposed that the original judgments of mankind...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)