Date: 1744, 1746

"Wide-stretching from these shores, / A people savage from remotest time, / A huge neglected empire, one vast mind, / By Heaven inspired, from gothic darkness call'd."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1744, 1746

"That with the vivid energy of sense, / The truth of Nature, which with Attic point / And kind well temper'd satire, smoothly keen, / Steals through the soul, and without pain corrects."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"There let the classic Page thy fancy lead / Thro rural Scenes; such as the Mantuan Swain / Paints in the matchless Harmony of Song. / Or catch thyself the Landskip, gliding swift / Athwart Imagination's vivid Eye."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"Or by the vocal Woods and Waters lull'd, / And lost in lonely Musing, in the Dream, / Confus'd, of careless Solitude, where mix / Ten thousand wandering Images of Things; / Soothe every Gust of Passion into Peace; / All but the Swellings of the soften'd Heart, / That waken, not disturb, the tran...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"Come with those downcast Eyes, sedate and sweet, / Those Looks demure, that deeply pierce the Soul; / Where, with the Light of thoughtful Reason mix'd, / Shines lively Fancy and the feeling Heart."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"These are the sacred feelings of thy heart, / Thy heart inform'd by reason's purer ray, / O Lyttelton, the friend!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"Deep to the root / Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields / And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose, / Blast Fancy's bloom, and wither e'en the soul."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"Now, while I taste the Sweetness of the Shade, / While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in Noon, / Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring Flight, / And view the Wonders of the torrid Zone."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"He framed a melting lay, to try her heart; / And, if an infant passion struggled there, / To call that passion forth."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1746

"Social friends, / Attuned to happy unison of soul; / To whose exalting eye a fairer world, / Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse, / Displays its charms; whose minds are richly fraught / With philosophic stores, superior light; / And in whose breast, enthusiastic, burns / Virtue, the sons of ...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)