Date: 1756, 1793

"Domestic troubles long my mind oppress'd, / And made the muse a stranger to my breast"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1760

"A man this emptied and vacuated of self-conceit, these lines of natural pride, being blotted out, the soul is as a Tabula rasa, an unwritten table, to receive any impression of the law of God, that he pleases to put on it; and then his words are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to ...

— Binning, Hugh (1627-1653)

Date: 1767

"He is now reduced to the greatest want and beggary, he is become a meer tabula rasa, a sheet of blank paper, a page of perfect inanity."

— Campbell, Archibald (bap. 1724, d. 1780)

Date: 1767

His existence is now at last in no danger of comminution, but then his powers are absolutely gone and quite evaporated. In a word, he is as dry and empty as a beer barrel after it has been some time set a-broach to a drunken mob at a general election."

— Campbell, Archibald (bap. 1724, d. 1780)

Date: 1768

"The deep Philsopher who turns mankind / Quite inside outwards, and dissects the mind, / Wou'd look but whimsical and strangely out, / To grudge some Quack his treatise on the gout."

— Wilkie, William (1721-1772)

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

"Yet on the youthful mind th' impression cast / Of ancient glory shall for ever last."

— Falconer, William (bap. 1732, d. 1770)

Date: 1796

"Too well, fair youth! thy lib'ral heart he knew; / A heart to Nature's warm impressions true!"

— Falconer, William (bap. 1732, d. 1770)

Date: 1796

"E'en they th' impressive dart of love can feel, / Whose stubborn souls are sheath'd in triple steel."

— Falconer, William (bap. 1732, d. 1770)

Date: 1801

Virtue may be a man's "eternal flame" or "ruling passion"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)