Date: 1667, 1710
"O be at leisure to look within, and get David's Candle and Lanthorn to go into those dark Corners of your Soul with it, and it may be you may see that within which may make your Heart to ake, and your Joints to quiver, and your Spirits to faint within you."
preview | full record— Janeway, James (1636?-1674)
Date: 1704
"Those Ancient Men of Genius who rifled Nature by the Torch-Light of Reason even to her very Nudities, have been run a-ground in this unknown Channel; the Wind has blown out the Candle of Reason, and left them all in the Dark."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1706
"There glides the moon her shining way, / And shoots my heart thro' with a silver ray."
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1709, 1810
"I've a mighty part within / That the world hath never seen, / Rich as Eden's happy ground, / And with choicer plenty crown'd: / Here on all the shining boughs / Knowledge fair and useful grows; / On the same young flow'ry tree / All the seasons you may see; / Notions in the bloom of light, / Jus...
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1724
"[S]o with my Eyes open, and with my Conscience, as I may say, awake, I sinn'd, knowing it to be a Sin, but having no Power to resist; when this had thus made a Hole in my Heart, and I was come to such a height, as to transgress against the Light of my own Conscience, I was then fit for any Wicke...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1733
Sights may be perform'd, "illusive scene! / By magick lantern of the spleen"
preview | full record— Green, Matthew (1696-1737) [pseud. Peter Drake, a Fisherman of Brentford]
Date: 1735
"Her lovely Mind shines chearful thro' her Face, / A sacred Lamp in a fair Crystal Case."
preview | full record— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)
Date: 1741
"The very Greek Heathens by the Light of Reason were taught to say, [GREEK CHARACTERS], and the Latins, A Jove principium, Musae."
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"Though the light / Of truth slow-dawning on the inquiring mind, / At length unfolds, through many a subtile tie, / How these uncouth disorders end at last / In public evil!"
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"Sure the rising sun / O'er the cærulean convex of the sea, / With equal brightness and with equal warmth / Might rowl his fiery orb; nor yet the soul / Thus feel her frame expanded, and her powers / Exulting in the splendor she beholds; / Like a young conqueror moving through the pomp / Of...
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)