Date: 1701

"But that little availed, for Artesia having in like sort opened the Device to Pamela, she (in whose mind Vertue governed with the Scepter of Knowledge) hating so horrible a Wickedness, and strait judging what was fit to do."

— Sidney, Philip, Sir (1554-1586)

Date: 1702

"The faculties of the Soul, like the parts of the Body, receive nourishment from use, and derive skill as well as they do force and vigour from exercise"

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1702

"But then reflecting that I might possibly o'er-hear some part of their Discourse, and by that judge of Leonora's Thoughts, I rein'd my Passion in; and by the help of an advancing Buttress, which kept me from their sight, I learnt the black Conspiracy."

— Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664-1726)

Date: 1702

"Now how should he possibly do this, unless he is absolutely free, and undisturbed by tormenting Passions, which bind him, as it were, and if I may use that expression, chain him fast to himself."

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1702

"For a Comick Poet is obliged to put off himself, and transform himself into his several Characters; to enter into the Foibles of his several persons, and all the Recesses and secret turns of their minds, and to make their Passions, their Interests, and their Concern his own."

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1704

"The following Treatise is but a small part of a Volume of Criticism intended to be publish'd in Folio, in which in Treating of the works of the most Celebrated English Poets Deceas'd, I design'd to shew both by Reason and Examples, that the use of Religion in Poetry was absolutely necessary to r...

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1704

"It is plain then that these Persons by designing totally to suppress the Stage, which is the only encouragement that we have in these Islands of Poetry, manifestly intended to drive out so noble and useful an Art from among us, and by that means endeavour'd with all their might to weaken the pow...

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1704

"Nay, wise Men and great Philosophers, have accounted it as the Archet or Musical Bow of the Mind. And certainly it is most true, and as it were a Secret of Nature, that the Minds of Men are more patent to Affections, and Impressions Congregate than Solitary."

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1704

"For he tells us in the beginning of the Treatise that the Sublime does not so properly persuade us, as it Ravishes and Transports us, and produces in us a certain Admiration mingled with astonishment and with surprise, which is quite another thing than the barely Pleasing or the barely perswadin...

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1704

"For the Spirits being set in a violent emotion, and the Imagination being fir'd by that agitation; and the Brain being deeply penetrated by those Impressions, the very Objects themselves are set as it were before us, and consequently we are sensible of the same Passion that we should feel from t...

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)