Date: 1693

"Who can describe the Pleasures, which attend A fair kind She, a Bottle, and a Friend? / How they divide the Empire of our Souls, / While each with grateful Tyranny controuls"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

Date: 1706, 1709

"We are a little Kingdom; But the Man / That chains his Rebel Will to Reasons Throne, / Forms it a large one."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1706, 1709

"But Charms so much divine / Hold a long Empire of the Heart."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1719

A "strange Impression upon the Mind, from we know not what Springs, and by we know not what Power," may over-rule us

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I now began to consider seriously my Condition, and the Circumstance I was reduc'd to, and I drew up the State of my Affairs in Writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me, for I was like to have but few Heirs, as to deliver my Thoughts from daily poring upon them, and a...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: June 22, 1731

"But Heaven, who knows our Frame, and graciously distinguishes between Frailty and Presumption, will make a Difference, tho' Man cannot, who sees not the Heart, but only judges by the outward Action."

— Lillo, George (1691/3-1739)

Date: 1745

"Then tell me, is your soul intire? / Does wisdom calmly hold her throne? / Then can you question each desire, / Bid this remain, and that begone?"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1772

"With that strong master of our frame, / The inexorable judge within / What can be done?"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1773

"O Wisdom! if thy soft controul / Can soothe the sickness of the soul, / Can bid the warring passions cease, / And breathe the calm of tender peace;-- / Wisdom! I bless thy gentle sway, / And ever, ever will obey."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1825

"One passion ruled despotic in her breast, / In every word, and look, and thought confest."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)