Date: 1789, 1791, 1799

"Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread resort, / Inexorable Conscience holds his court"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1789, 1791, 1799

"Oft tho' thy genius, Darwin! amply fraught / With native wealth, explore new worlds of mind; / Whence the bright ores of drossless wisdom brought, / Stampt by the Muse's hand, enrich mankind"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1789, 1791, 1799

"When Air's pure essence joins the vital flood, / And with phosphoric Acid dyes the blood, / Your Virgin trains the transient Heat dispart, / And lead the soft combustion round the heart; / Life's holy lamp with fires successive feed"

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: February 1791

"Call to mind the sentiments which nature has engraved on the heart of every citizen, and which take a new force when they are solemnly recognised by all."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: February 1791

"It has apparently burst forth like a creation from a chaos, but it is no more than the consequence of a mental revolution priorily existing in France."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: February 1791

"Montesquieu, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, went as far as a writer under a despotic government could well proceed; and being obliged to divide himself between principle and prudence, his mind often appears under a veil, and we ought to give him credit for more than he has expressed."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: February 1791

"The mind, in discovering truth, acts in the same manner as it acts through the eye in discovering objects; when once any object has been seen, it is impossible to put the mind back to the same condition it was in before it saw it."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: February 1792

"Whatever wisdom constituently is, it is like a seedless plant; it may be reared when it appears, but it cannot be voluntarily produced."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: February 1792

"It appears as if the tide of mental faculties flowed as far as it could in certain channels, and then forsook its course, and arose in others. How irrational then is the hereditary system, which establishes channels of power, in company with which wisdom refuses to flow!"

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: 1792

"I should have been glad if I could have had an earlier opportunity also of knowing, which I do not admit at present, that it was genuine and authentic; because I know not only the impression which such a letter must make upon Gentlemen's minds who are the Jury to try the cause, b...

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)