Date: w. 1687 [published 1907]

"Yet potent Nature frankly has bestow'd / Such various gifts amongst the mingl'd Crowd, */ That I believe, the dullest of the kind, / Wou'd he but Husband and Manure his Mind,* / Might find some Exce'llence there, which well-improv'd / At home might make him Pleas'd, in public Lov'd."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1701

"No man was ever yet so void of sense, / As to debate the right of self-defence; / A principle so grafted in the mind, / With nature born, and does like nature bind."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"Yet if we look more closely, we shall find / Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind: / Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light; / The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"As fruits ungrateful to the planter's care / On savage stocks inserted learn to bear; / The surest Virtues thus from Passions shoot, / Wild Nature's vigor working at the root."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Grant but as many sorts of mind, as Moss."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Tis Education forms the vulgar mind: / Just as the Twig is bent, the Tree's inclin'd."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill, / Grafts on this Passion our best principle: / 'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd, / Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737

"From threshing Corn, he turns to thresh his Brains; / For which Her M------y allows him Grains."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1746, 1749

"But, since we never from the Breast of Fools / Can root their Passions, yet while Reason rules, / Let her hold forth her Scales with equal Hand, / Justly to punish, as the Crimes demand."

— Francis, Philip (1708-1773)

Date: 1854

"Let it [caelestïal Sweetness] not stop when entred at the Ear / But sink, and take deep rooting in my heart."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)