Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Let the scene / Paint in thy fancy the primæval seat / Of man."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Thus ambition grasps / The empire of the soul."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Such then is the abode / Of folly in the mind; and such the shapes / In which she governs her obsequious train."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

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!"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Or flows their semblance from that mystic tone / To which the new-born mind's harmonious powers / At first were strung?"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Let the mind / Recall one partner of the various league, / Immediate, lo! the firm confederates rise, / And each his former station strait resumes: / One movement governs the consenting throng, / And all at once with rosy pleasure shine, / Or all are sadden'd with the glooms of care."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"By these mysterious ties the busy power / Of memory her ideal train preserves / Intire; or when they would elude her watch, / Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste / Of dark oblivion."

— 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...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Nor thence partakes / Fresh pleasure only: for the attentive mind, / By this harmonious action on her powers / Becomes herself harmonious: wont so oft / In outward things to meditate the charm / Of sacred order, soon she seeks at home / To find a kindred order, to exert / Within herself this ele...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"But if to ampler prospects, if to gaze / On nature's form, where, negligent of all / These lesser graces, she assumes the port / Of that eternal majesty that weigh'd / The world's foundations, if to these the mind / Exalts her daring eye; then mightier far / Will be the change, and nobler."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)