Date: 1760

"O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay, / Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day, / And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar, / Where dangers threat, and fears alarm no more."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1767

"Thus it appears to be in every respect a proper counterbalance to the RAMBLING and VOLATILE power of IMAGINATION. The one, perpetually attempting to soar, is apt to deviate into the mazes of error; while the other arrests the wanderer in its vagrant course, and compels it to follow the path of n...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"The conversation-wits resemble those persons, whose ideas pass through their minds in too quick succession to be distinct; but who, nevertheless, being endued with a natural volubility of expression, acquit themselves to admiration in company; while one is at a loss to find either sense or gramm...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"By this means it happens, that though the principles of a just Taste are implanted in the mind of every man of Genius, yet, by a neglect of proper cultivation, or too great an indulgence of the extravagant ramblings of Fancy, those principles are vitiated, and Taste becomes sometimes INCORRECT,...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Conscious of its native energy, it delights to expand its faculties by the most vigorous exertion, Ranging through the unbounded regions of nature and of art, it explores unbeaten tracks of thought, catches a glimpse of some objects which lie far beyond the sphere of ordinary observation, and ob...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"A Writer however, of the kind last mentioned, instead of tracing the footsteps of his predecessors, will allow his imagination to range over the field of Invention, in quest of its materials; and, from the group of figures collected by it, will strike out a character like his own Genius, perfect...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Whether this quality is to be ascribed to the cause above-mentioned in particular; or whether it is the effect of that fiery impetuosity of Imagination, which, breaking through the legal restraints of criticism, or overleaping the mounds of authority and custom, sometimes loses sight of the Just...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"A Genius for Architecture truly ORIGINAL, will, by the native force and plastic power of Imagination, strike out for itself new and surprising Models in this Art; and, by its combining faculty, will select out of the infinite variety of ideal forms that float in the mind, those of the Grand and ...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1771, 1776

"Thus Heaven enlarged his soul in riper years. / For Nature gave him strength, and fire, to soar, / On Fancy's wing, above this vale of tears."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)