Date: 1744, 1746

"Wide-stretching from these shores, / A people savage from remotest time, / A huge neglected empire, one vast mind, / By Heaven inspired, from gothic darkness call'd."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Thus ambition grasps / The empire of the soul."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Let the mind / Recall one partner of the various league, / Immediate, lo! the firm confederates rise, / And each his former station strait resumes: / One movement governs the consenting throng, / And all at once with rosy pleasure shine, / Or all are sadden'd with the glooms of care."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Yet not by all / Those lying forms which fancy in the brain / Engenders, are the kindling passions driven, / To guilty deeds; nor reason bound in chains, / That vice alone may lord it: oft adorn'd / With solemn pageants, folly mounts the throne, / And plays her idiot-anticks, like a queen. / A t...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Then the inexpressive strain / Diffuses its inchantment: fancy dreams / Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves, / And vales of bliss: the intellectual power / Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear, / And smiles: the passions, gently sooth'd away, / Sink to divine repose, and love and joy /...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Thou, smiling queen of every tuneful breast, / Indulgent Fancy from the fruitful banks / Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull / Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf / Where Shakespeare lies, be present."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Defil'd to such a depth of sordid shame / The native honours of the human soul, / Nor so effac'd the image of its sire."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Thus he learns / Their birth and fortunes; how allied they haunt / The avenues of sense; what laws direct / Their union; and what various discords rise, / Or fix'd or casual: which when his clear thought / Retains and when his faithful words express, / That living image of the external scene, / ...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1745

"Then tell me, is your soul intire? / Does wisdom calmly hold her throne? / Then can you question each desire, / Bid this remain, and that begone?"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1745

"Too much my heart of Beauty's power hath known, / Too long to Love hath reason left her throne; / Too long my genius mourn'd his myrtle chain, / And three rich years of youth consum'd in vain."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)