Date: 1760-7

"Could no such thing as favour and affection enter this sacred Court [of Conscience]:--Did Wit disdain to take a bribe in it;--or was asham'd to shew its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1723

"Tho' now, 'tis true, the strong Temptation's Force / Suspends Religion, and diverts its Course; / Yet still the Pow'r that chiefly rules your Soul, / And will I trust your future Life controul, / Is heav'nly Virtue, which, tho' now opprest / It sleeps a while unactive in your Breast, / Will, rou...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1684, 1717

The Will, "that Bully of the Mind," is next to pay court to Queen Fancy: "Follies wait on him in a Troop behind; / He meets Reception from the Antick Queen, / Who thinks her Majesty's most honour'd, when / Attended by those fine drest Gentlemen"

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1703, 1718

"Passions Subjection to their Guide disown, / Insult their Soveraign, and subvert his Throne"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

Fancy may "fickle reign in Reason's Seat, / And Thy wild Empire, Anarchy, uphold"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

Tyrant desires subject man to "various Servitude, and endless Change of Pain"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Enormous Bacchanalian Pleasures, loose / Milesian Feasts and Luxury in Use / Among abandon'd Sibarites, were dear / To all the Natives sunk in Riot here, / As they to brutal Instincts had resign'd / Celestial Reason's Empire of the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Kings of the Empire of the Soul possest, / Who sit enthron'd secure in every Breast / In Civil Strength, and Glory will encrease, / And triumph mid'st the Joys of lasting Peace."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Vice had usurp'd the Empire of his Soul."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"[C]an Arms o'er Reason Conquests win, / And triumph o'er the awful Judge within?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)