Date: w. 1707, published 1728-9

Dulness is "the safe Opiate of the Mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1728, 1729, 1736

"A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;] i. e. A trifling head, and a contracted heart,as the poet, book 4. describes the accomplished Sons of Dulness; of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and so stuffed out with these corresponding materials."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733

"I love to pour out all myself, as plain / As downright Shippen, or as old Montagne. / In them, as certain to be lov'd as seen, / The Soul stood forth, nor kept a Thought within; / In me what Spots (for Spots I have) appear, / Will prove at least the Medium must be clear."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"On Life's vast ocean diversely we sail, / Reason the card, but Passion is the gale."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, / Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain, / These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd, / Make, and maintain, the balance of the mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Yes, Nature's road must ever be prefer'd; / Reason is here no guide, but still a guard."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

Reason gives the ruling passion more power "As Heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sowr"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"All Manners take a tincture from our own, / Or come discolour'd thro' our Passions shown."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, / Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide: / And Middle natures, how they long to join, / Yet never pass th'insuperable line!"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)