Date: 1712

"Thoughts in an Instant thro' the Zodiack run, / A Year's long Journey for the lab'ring Sun: / Then down they shoot, as swift as darting Light, / Nor can opposing Clouds retard their Flight: / Thro' Subterranean Vaults with Ease they sweep, / And search the hidden Wonders of the Deep."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1714

"Reason is now no more; that narrow Lamp / (Which with its sickly Fires wou'd shoot its Beams / To Distances unknown, and stretch its Rays / Ascance my Paths, in deepest darkness veil'd) / Is sunk into its Socket"

— Evans, Abel (1679-1737)

Date: 1718

"When first to Think your active Mind essay'd, / And young Ideas in your Fancy play'd, / While dawning Reason's unexperienc'd Ray / Drew a faint Scetch of Intellectual Day, / Your Parents, who the Laws of Heav'n revere, / And make Immortal Bliss their pious Care, / Assiduous strove by mild Instru...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"But the sweet Bowl's intoxicating Fume / Will by degrees our vanquish'd Sense benumb, / And o'er the Mind diffuse Egyptian Gloom."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1760

"Dim burns the Lamp of Life; this Breast heaves slow; / My Soul shall soon the last sad Journey go."

— Langhorne,William (1721-1772)

Date: w. May, 1756; 1761

"For these, if I forget my patron's praise, / While bright ideas dance upon my mind, / Ne'er may these eyes behold auspicious days, / May friends prove faithless, and the Muse unkind."

— Fawkes, Francis (1720-1777)

Date: 1763

"Doth Virtue in thy bosom brighter glow, / Or from a Spring more pure doth Action flow? / Is not thy Soul bound with those very chains / Which shackle us, or is that SELF, which reigns / O'er Kings and Beggars, which in all we see / Most strong and sov'reign, only weak in Thee?"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1767, 1784

"But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride, / Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain, / Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads, / Or Superstition, with mishapen forms, / Erects its savage empire in the mind."

— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)