Date: 1735-6

"The steel of Brutus burst the grosser bonds / By Cæsar cast o'er Rome; but still remain'd / The soft enchanting fetters of the mind, / And other Cæsars rose."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

The young mind may be fed impurities and bloated with "scholastic jargon" or it may be "fill'd and nourish'd by the light of truth"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"Thus human life, unhinged, to ruin reel'd,
And giddy Reason totter'd on her throne."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"While his the bloodless conquest of the heart, / Shouts without groan, and triumph without war"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1735-6

"Of one who, should the unkingly thirst of gold, / Or tyrant passions, or ambition, prompt, / Calls locust-armies o'er the blasted land:"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1737

"Whatever fancy paints, invention pours, / Judgment digests, the well tuned bosom feels, / Truth natural, moral, or divine, has taught, / The virtues dictate, or the Muses sing."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1737

"Lend me the plaint, which, to the lonely main, / With memory conversing, you will pour, / As on the pebbled shore you, pensive, stray"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1737

"Whence Talbot's friendship glows to future times, / Intrepid, warm; of kindred tempers born; / Nursed, by experience, into slow esteem, / Calm confidence unbounded, love not blind, / And the sweet light from mingled minds disclosed, / From mingled chymic oils as bursts the fire."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1737

"I too remember well that mental Bowl, / Which round his Table flow'd."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: January 1739

"I know that the fear of the civil magistrate is as strong a restraint as any of iron, and that I am in as perfect safety as if he were chain'd or imprison'd."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)