Date: 1785

"I was delighted with this flash bursting from the cloud which hung upon his mind, closed my letter directly, and joined the company."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1785

"At a great school there is all the splendour and illumination of many minds; the radiance of all is concentrated in each, or at least reflected upon each."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1790

"All the splendour of the highest prosperity can never enlighten the gloom with which so dreadful an idea must necessarily over-shadow the imagination; nor, in a wise and virtuous man, can all the sorrow of the most afflicting adversity ever dry up the joy which necessarily springs from the habit...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1791

"I have a wonderful superstitious love of mystery; when, perhaps, the truth is, that it is owing to the cloudy darkness of my own mind."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1793

" When painful truths invade the mind, / Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind, / And hates th' officious ray."

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1796

"Reason's dying lamp / Scarce brighter burns than instinct in their breast"

— Bruce, Michael (1746-1767)

Date: 1803

The muse "beams a visionary day: / Bright as the magic torch she early gave / To light thy ven'trous way, through fancy's secret cave."

— Hunter [née Home], Anne (1742-1821)

Date: 1814

"Her steady lamp shall pour its guiding ray, / And shed on lowliest minds celestial day."

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

Date: 1814

"Death reveals his bright associate Truth,/ (Whose rays the new-departed soul illume, / Like those eternal lamps that light the tomb,)"

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