Date: 1809

"Could my ideas flow as fast as the rain in the store-closet it would be charming."

— Austen, Jane (1775-1817)

Date: 1837

"Make Thou my spirit pure and clear / As are the frosty skies, / Or this first snowdrop of the year / That in my bosom lies."

— Tennyson, Alfred, first Baron Tennyson (1809–1892)

Date: 1838

"Charm'd by her voice, th' harmonious sounds invade / His clouded mind, and for a time persuade:"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: w. 1943, 1944

"The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only be reading old books."

— Lewis, C. S. (1898-1963)

Date: w. 1702-1713, published 1989

"At modern Rome an easy Nymph was bred / In tender tales & soft Romances read / These on the brain a wild impression brought / & made her sure she saw what ere she thought."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)