Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"These flattering scenes / To this neglected labour court my song; / Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task / To paint the finest features of the mind, / And to most subtile and mysterious things / Give colour, strength, and motion."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Let the scene / Paint in thy fancy the primæval seat / Of man."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"For as old Memnon's image, long renown'd / By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch / Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string / Consenting, sounded through the warbling air / Unbidden strains; even so did nature's hand / To certain species of external things, / Attune the finer organs of the ...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"O wherefore, with a rash impetuous aim, / Seek ye those flowery joys with which the hand / Of lavish fancy paints each flattering scene / Where beauty seems to dwell, nor once inquire / Where is the sanction of eternal truth, / Or where the seal of undeceitful good, / To save your search from fo...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1746

"While there with thee the enchanted round I walk, / The regulated wild, gay Fancy then / Will tread in thought the groves of attic land; / Will from thy standard taste refine her own, / Correct her pencil to the purest truth / Of Nature, or, the unimpassion'd shades / Forsaking, raise it to the ...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"For me, when I forget the darling theme, / Whether the blossom blows, the summer-ray / Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams; / Or Winter rises in the blackening east; / Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more, / And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1751

"Another Source of mutual Misapprehension on this Subject hath been 'the Introduction of metaphorical Expressions instead of proper ones.' Nothing is so common among the Writers on Morality, as 'the Harmony of Virtue'—'the Proportion of Virtue.'"

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1751

"They [sense, imagination, and passion] are no more than the several Species of simple Colours laid, as it were, upon the Pallet; which, variously combined and associated by the Hand of an experienced Master, would indeed call forth every striking Resemblance, every changeful Feature of the Heart...

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1775

"[B]e assured I throw the original from my heart as easily!"

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)