Date: 1767

"This difference must certainly proceed from the transforming power of Imagination, whose rays illuminate the objects we contemplate; and which, without the lustre shed on them by this faculty, would appear unornamented and undistinguished."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Or, to set the difference betwixt philosophic and poetic Imagination in another light by the use of an image, we may observe, that in the mind of the Philosopher the RAYS of fancy are more COLLECTED, and more CONCENTRATED in one point; and consequently are more favourable to ACCURATE and DISTINC...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"An original Author indeed will frequently be apt to exceed in the use of this ornament, by pouring forth such a blaze of imagery, as to dazzle and overpower the mental sight; the effect of which is, that his Writings become obscure, if not unintelligible to common Readers; just as the eye is for...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"On the other hand, the too liberal use of IMAGERY even in Poetry (besides that obscurity which it occasions to the ordinary class of Readers, as well as that fatigue which the Imagination experiences from its excessive glare) so disgusts the mind with the perpetual labour of tracing relations an...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Ordinary minds seldom rise above the dull uniform tenor of common sentiments, like those animals that are condemned to creep on the ground all the days of their life; but the most lawless excursions of an original Genius, like the flight of an eagle, are towering, though devious; its path, as th...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Poetic Genius in particular cannot flourish either in uninterrupted SUNSHINE, or in continual SHADE. It languishes under the blazing ardor of a summer noon, as its buds are blasted by the damp fogs and chilling breath of a winter sky."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1770

"Let him not intrude upon the company of men of science; but repose with his brethren Aquinas and Suarez, in the corner of some Gothic cloister, dark as his understanding, and cold as his heart."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1774

"While a man is engaged in composition or investigation, he often seems to himself to be fired with his subject, and to teem with ideas; but on revising the work, finds that his judgment is offended, and his time lost. An idea that sparkled in the eye of fancy, is often condemned by judgment as f...

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"Penetration implies such a force of imagination as leads to the comprehension and explication of a subject: brightness of imagination fits a man for adorning a subject. A penetrating mind emits the rays by which truth is discovered: a bright fancy supplies the colours by which beauty is produced."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1776

"The lights of the mind are, if I may so express myself, in an opposite situation to the lights of the body."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)