Date: 1773

"While others,--consecrate to higher aims, / Whose hallowed bosoms glow with purer flames, / Love in their heart, persuasion in their tongue,-- / With words of peace shall charm the listening throng, / Draw the dread veil that wraps the' eternal throne, / And launch our souls into the bright unkn...

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1774

"The writer of Romance has even an advantage over those who endeavour to amuse by the play of fancy; who from the fortuitous collision of dissimilar ideas produce the scintillations of wit; or by the vivid glow of poetical imagery delight the imagination with colours of ideal radiance"

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1777, 1780

"While he prayed, he felt an enlargement of heart beyond what he had ever experienced before; all idle fears were dispersed, and his heart glowed with divine love and affiance: He seemed raised above the world and all its pursuits."

— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)

Date: 1783

" And when thou yields to night thy wide domain, / Let rays of truth enlight his sleeping brain."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1784

"I hurry forward, passion's helplesss slave! And scorning reason's mild and sober light, / Pursue the path that leads me to the grave!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1786

"So o'er my soul short rays of reason fly, / Then fade:--and leave me, to despair and die!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1786

"But when thy envied sanction crowns my lays, / A ray of pleasure lights my languid mind, / For well I know the value of thy praise."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"She could not write any more; she wished herself far distant from all human society; a thick gloom spread itself over her mind: but did not make her forget the very beings she wished to fly from."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1788

"She could not write any more; she wished herself far distant from all human society; a thick gloom spread itself over her mind: but did not make her forget the very beings she wished to fly from."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1788

"In moments of solitary sadness, a gleam of joy would dart across her mind."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)