Date: 1700

"What's all the noisy Jargon of the Schools, / But idle Nonsense of laborious Fools, / Who fetter Reason with perplexing Rules."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"We seldome use our Liberty aright, / Nor Judge of Things by Universal Light; / Our Prepossessions and Affections bind / The Soul in Chains, and Lord it o're the Mind."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1703

"Ye holy Souls, who from your Bondage free, / Have reach'd th' inmost Mansions of the Skie, / And there, those dazling Glories see, / Which lie / Beyond the utmost Ken of a weak mortal Eye."

— Chudleigh [née Lee], Mary, Lady Chudleigh (bap. 1656, d. 1710)

Date: 1712

"She [the soul] does her Godlike Liberty secure: / Her Right and high Prerogative maintains, / Impatient of the Yoke, and scorns coercive Chains."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: w. 1702-1713

"Loos'd from ye chains of flesh his freer mind / Rose up to sacred love, / To perfect saint or seraphim refin'd, / Quitting his lump of clay, / As subtle spirits fume away / Loos'd from their earth they upward mount, they flye, / They light, they shine, & blaze along the skye."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

Date: w. before 1717? (first published 1989)

"But he who servily can wish or grieve / For that which is not in his powr to give / Casts off the firmness wch shoud make him great / the strongest shield we can oppose to fate / letts inclinations grow & thus he weaves / Those very bonds which keep us passions slaves."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

Date: 1718

"Reluctant Reason you'll in Fetters keep, / And lay th' insulting Judge within asleep."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"O when shall my glad Soul releast / From these uneasy Chains of Clay, / To the bright Regions of the Blest / Wing with a Lover's Speed her Way?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Now, when unbridled Passions use to reign, / While vanquish'd Reason wears the Victor's Chain, / See Pleasure, fair and smiling as the Morn, / (Soft Silks her Limbs, gay Flow'rs her Head adorn) / Which with her Breath perfumes the ambient Air, / While sporting Zephyrs heave her golden Hair, / Mi...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Should you presumptuous, quit your safer Ground, / And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound, / And on the Frontier to engage the Foe, With Reason 's weak collected Forces go, / You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass, / Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace, / In her soft ...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)