Date: w. 1702-1713, 1989

"So the brave Falcon when its glorys fade / When its strong wings their generous forces shed / The vacant holds ignobler birds supply / With Ravens feathers impd she mounts on high / & weak or giddy strayes along the sky."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

Date: 1713

"Not skilful Lower thy Source cou'd find, / Or thro' the well-dissected Body trace / The secret, the mysterious ways, / By which thou dost surprize, and prey upon the Mind."

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)

Date: 1714

"His ductile Reason will be wound about, / Be led and turn'd again, say and unsay, / Receive the Yoak, and yeild exact Obedience."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1714

"'Tis all in vain, this Rage that tears thy Bosom, / Like a poor Bird that flutters in its Cage, / Thou beat'st thy self to Death."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1714

"For if vast Thoughts shou'd play about a Mind / Inclos'd in Flesh, and dregging cumbrous Life, / Fluttering and beating in the mournful Cage, / It soon wou'd break its Grates and wing away."

— Evans, Abel (1679-1737)

Date: 1705, 1714, 1732

"Malice and most severe Strokes of Fortune can do no more Injury to a Mind thus stript of all Fears, Wishes and Inclinations, than a blind Horse can do in an empty Barn"

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

Date: 1715

"Close, like a Dragon folded in his Den, / Some secret Venom preys upon his Heart."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1715

"Shall thy Soul / Still scorn the World, still flie the Joys that court / Thy blooming Beauty, and thy tender Youth? / Still shall she soar on Contemplation's Wing, / And mix with nothing meaner than the Stars; / As Heaven and Immortality alone / Were Objects worthy to employ her Faculties."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1716

"Let thy Studies [he writes] be as free as thy Thoughts and Contemplations: but fly not only upon the wings of Imagination."

— Browne, Sir Thomas (1605-1682)

Date: 1716

"My ravish'd Heart strait like a Bird of Prey / Stoop'd at the Lure; And thus my early Youth / Was by vain Thoughts bewildred and mis-led."

— Monck [née Molesworth], Mary (1677?-1715)