Date: 1701
"Their brain's so cool, their passion seldom burns; / For all's condens'd before the flame returns; The fermentation's of so weak a matter, / The humid damps the fume, and runs it all to water."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1704
"Remark your commonest pretender to a light within, how dark, and dirty, and gloomy he is without; as lanterns which, the more light they bear in their bodies, cast out so much the more soot and smoke and fuliginous matter to adhere to the sides."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: May 10, 1704
"Besides, there is something individual in human minds that easily kindles at the accidental approach and collision of certain circumstances, which, though of paltry and mean appearance, do often flame out into the greatest emergencies of life."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1712
"The fair Sicilians now thy Soul inflame; / Why was I born, ye Gods, a Lesbian Dame?"
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1713
"In a Glass-House, the Workmen often fling in a small quantity of fresh Coals, which seems to disturb the Fire, but very much enlivens it. This seems to allude to a gentle stirring of the Passions, that the Mind may not languish."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)