Date: 1711

"These active Liquors, which Admission find / Thro' the strait Paths, and leave the coarse behind, / Swift to the inmost Rooms their Passage beat, / And crowd around the Soul's Imperial Seat."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Of subtile Matter form'd, refin'd and bright, / As Light'ning sprightly, and serene as Light, / Watching their Soveraign's Nod, they ready stand / Apt to perform the Mind's supream Command."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Such noble Vital Instruments are fit / For Reason's Works, and beauteous Turns of Wit. / With finer Strokes they move the tender Strings / Tun'd in the Brain, whence clear Perception springs."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"When Fancy makes superior Flight her Aim, / Wing'd with this vig'rous, clear seraphick Flame, / She ranges Nature's universal Frame; / Bright Seeds of Thought from various Objects takes, / Whence her fair Scenes and Images she makes: / Spirits so swift, so fine, so bold, so strong, / Gave Milton...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Obdurate, rarely in your yielding Breast, / You entertain the Beatifick Guest."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Your Hearts, as barren as your Rocks and Sand, / Her Charms and pow'rful Influence withstand; / Whose heav'nly Rays defeated thence recoil, / Like Sun-Beams wasted on unfruitful Soil."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"These Spirits rais'd from Choler to the Brain, / Like those extracted from the basest Grain, / Impure and crude, produce unnatural Heat, / And an ignoble Flame of Life create."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Fierce is their [natives of hot climates] Rage, and all the Savage Beast / Reigns in their Soul, and haunts their desart Breast; / Where Hate, Revenge, and Jealousy are bred, / And livid Envy hides her spleenful Head."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1716

"We are gratify'd to see an unexpected Idea presented to our Understanding, and wonder at the beautiful Conjunction of Notions so separate and remote before; and whatever is marvellous is delightful too; as we always feel a Pleasure at the sight of Foreigners and their Garments, so the Mind rejoi...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1742 [see first edition, 1733]

"The Mind, like a Tabula rasa, easyly receives the first Impression; and, like that, when the first Impression is deeply made, it with Difficulty admits of an Erasement of the first Characters, which in some Minds are indelible"

— Cooke, Thomas (1703-1756)