Date: 1746

"If wisdom once relax her golden reins, / No bliss is felt-but what the transport feign / Excess of joy but terminates in pain, / And impotence is ever in disdain."

— Ruffhead, James

Date: 1747

"But the wild passions, once broke loose, to check / Surpass'd his pow'r, or the slack'd reins recall."

— Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1741)

Date: 1754

"This little Bird, when you receive, / An emblem of my heart believe."

— Bowden, Samuel (fl. 1733-1761)

Date: 1755

"Bid grief, that vulture to my breast, / Sharper than what Prometheus knows, / Avaunt! and leave the bard at rest."

— Derrick, Samuel

Date: 1755

The "busy Statesman's mind" may grow putrid on the throne of power so that "Fresh vices spring up ev'ry hour; / As in dead corses serpents breed, / And loathsome, on corruption feed"

— Derrick, Samuel (1724-1769)

Date: 1759

A Logician is "one, that has been broke / To Ride and Pace his Reason by the Booke, And by their Rules, and Precepts, and Examples, / To put his wits into a kind of Trammells."

— Butler, Samuel (1613-1680)

Date: 1760?

The Grace teaches "When to check the sportive Vein; / When to Fancy give the Rein."

— Langhorne, John (1735-1779)

Date: 1761, 1765

"Labour and Want (unhospitable twain) / Chill not the current in Life's salient vein; / Nor damp the spirits, else of sprightly cast, / Nor check the nobler passions of the breast; / Nor blunt the fine Sensation's tender edge, / Which man's chief pride philosophers allege. / Thus some fair ...

— Stevenson, William (1730-1783)

Date: 1761, 1765

"But, after Fancy's eagle-flights were o'er, / And heav'n-illumin'd Genius could no more; / Thus, conscious all his best essays how vain, / Might the rapt bard conclude his humble strain."

— Stevenson, William (1730-1783)

Date: 1762

"If by the Day's illusive Scenes misled, / My erring Soul from Virtue’s Path has stray'd; / Snar'd by example, or by Passion warm'd, / Some false Delight my giddy Sense has charm'd, / My calmer Thoughts the wretched Choice reprove, / And my best Hopes are center'd in thy Love."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)