Date: 1704

"Fetch me, said she, a mighty Bowl, / Like Oberon's capacious Soul."

— King, William (1663-1712)

Date: May 10, 1704

"Thrice have I forced my imagination to take the tour of my invention, and thrice it has returned empty, the latter having been wholly drained by the following treatise."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1745

"And tho' each Day increas'd his curious Store / Thought his capacious Soul had room for more"

— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)

Date: 1766

"I have ever perceived, that where the mind was capacious, the affections were good."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: w. 1782, 1786, 1816

"They very politely invited Bababalouk to be of their party; but his head was full of other concerns."

— Beckford, William (1760-1844)

Date: w. 1782, 1786, 1816

"The falling waters filled his soul with dejection, and his tears trickled down the jasmines he had caught from Nouronihar, and placed in his inflamed bosom."

— Beckford, William (1760-1844)

Date: w. 1782, 1786, 1816

"The unexpected arrival of the Caliph and the splendour that marked his appearance, had already filled with emotion the ardent soul of Nouronihar."

— Beckford, William (1760-1844)

Date: w. 1782, 1786, 1816

"Instantaneously, the haughty forehead of the intrepid princess became corrugated with agony: she uttered a tremendous yell; and fixed, no more to be withdrawn, her right hand upon her heart, which was become a receptacle of eternal fire."

— Beckford, William (1760-1844)

Date: 1791, 1794

"I mean not to extenuate the faults of those unhappy women who fall victims to guilt and folly; but surely, when we reflect how many errors we are ourselves subject to, how many secret faults lie hid in the recesses of our hearts, which we should blush to have brought into open day (and yet those...

— Rowson, Susanna (1762-1828)

Date: 1975

"In the preceding months he had prepared himself with meticulous care, filling his mind with distilled knowledge, drop by drop, until, on the eve of the first paper (Old English Set Texts) it was almost brimming over."

— Lodge, David (b. 1935)