Date: December 10, 1774; 1775
"He will pick up from dunghills what by a nice chymistry, passing through his own mind, shall be converted into pure gold; and, under the rudeness of Gothic essays, he will find original, rational, and even sublime inventions."
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: 1772-1781, 1781
"But, if thy faint springs / Refuse this large supply, steel thy firm soul / With stoic pride"
preview | full record— Mason, William (1725-1797)
Date: December, 1781; 1835
"Smooth, ductile, and even, [the poet's] fancy must flow, / Must tinkle and glitter like gold to the sight / And catch in its progress a sensible glow."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
Superficial education slights "the precious kernel of the stone" and polishes "its rough coat alone"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
In polishing the mind, Luxury gives it a "childish cast"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
"Let heathen worthies, whose exalted mind / Left sensuality and dross behind, / Possess for me their undisputed lot"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: November 10, 1783
"He gives, what bankrupt Nature never can, / Whose noblest coin is light and brittle man, / Gold, purer far than Ophir ever knew, / A soul, an image of himself, and therefore true."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1785
Wisdom is a pearl "with most success / Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies"
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)