Date: 1747

Johnson's dictionary may "awaken to the care of purer diction some men of genius, whose attention to argument makes them negligent of style, or whose rapid imagination, like the Peruvian torrents, when it brings down gold, mingles it with sand."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: April 1761

"What the grave triflers on this busy scene, / When they make use of this word Reason, mean, / I know not; but according to my plan, / 'Tis Lord Chief-Justice in the court of man"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1763

"Nor hope the Conquest of that stubborn Heart"

— Hoyland, Francis (1727-1786)

Date: 1770

"Not greater wonder seiz'd th' abode / Of gloomy Dis, infernal god, / With pity when th' Orphean lyre / Did every iron heart inspire, / Sooth'd tortur'd ghosts with heavenly strains, / And respited eternal pains."

— Dalton, John (b. 1709, d. 1763)

Date: 1781

"Her teeming Thoughts with bright Conceptions glow, / Ideas crowd, and Lines spontaneous flow."

— Keate, George (1729-1797)

Date: 1791

"The generous Mind expanding into Joy, / While no mean Passion mixt its base Alloy;"

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)