Date: 1781

"His temper was, in consequence of the dominion of his passions, uncertain and capricious: he was easily engaged, and easily disgusted; but he is accused of retaining his hatred more tenaciously than his benevolence."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1781

"He [Young] plays, indeed, only on the surface of life; he never penetrates the recesses of the mind, and therefore the whole power of his poetry is exhausted by a single perusal; his conceits please only when they surprise."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1781

"In his 'Night Thoughts' he has exhibited a very wide display of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking allusions, a wilderness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odour."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1781

"Insulted Reason fled the grov'ling soul, / For Fear to guide, and visions to control: / But now, when Reason has assumed her throne, / She, in her turn, demands to reign alone"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1781

Reason may reject "all that lies beyond her view / And being judge, will be a witness too"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1781

"Blest be the gracious Power, who taught mankind / To stamp a lasting image of the mind!"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1779, 1781

"Pope foresaw the future efflorescence of imagery then budding in his mind, and resolved to spare no art or industry of cultivation."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1782

"Till then, old red-nos'd Wilson's art / Will hold its empire o'er my heart."

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1782

"The wise philosopher tells us, that the soul of man is rasa tabula, like a white sheet of paper, out of which it must be more than common art to erase the first impressions"

— Grose, John (bap. 1758, d. 1821)

Date: 1787

"Yet when he bawl'd for sense, he bawl'd, I wot, / For furniture the head had never got."

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)