Date: 1730

"What dreadful havoc in the human breast / The passions make, when unconfin'd, and mad, / They burst, unguided by the mental eye, / The light of reason; which in various ways / Points them to good, or turns them back from ill."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1730

"O save me from the tumult of the soul! / From the wild beasts within!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1730

"All deaths, all tortures, in one pang combin'd, / Are gentle to the tempest of the mind."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1730

"This rising day / Saw Sophonisba, from the height of life, / Thrown to the very brink of slavery: / State, honours, armies vanquish'd; nothing left / But her own great unconquerable mind."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1730

"See there the ruins of the noble mind, / When from calm reason passion tears the sway."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1739

"Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart: / [Drama] pours it strong and instant through the heart"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"O keep the dear impression on your breast, / Nor idly loose it for a wretched jest.

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"My Brother talks for ever of the Passion, / That fires young Tancred's Breast."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"He says that, tho' he were not nobly born, / Nature has form'd him noble, generous, brave, / Truely magnanimous, and warmly scorning / Whatever bears the smallest Taint of Baseness: / That every easy Virtue is his own; / Not learnt by painful Labour, but inspir'd, / Implanted in his Soul."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

Chiefly one Charm / He in his graceful Character observes: / That tho' his Passions burn with high Impatience, / And sometimes, from a noble Heat of Nature, / Are ready to fly off, yet the least Check / Of ruling Reason brings them back to Temper, / And gentle Softness."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)