Date: 1788-89

"The former [Platonic philosophy] fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter [Lockean philosophy] clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries he...

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1789

"Here lies her bracelet of flowers, exquisitely perfumed by the root of síura which had been spread on her bosom: it has fallen from her delicate wrist, and is become a new chain for my heart."

— Jones, Sir William (1746-1794)

Date: 1792

"Curs'd lethargy of the soul! ... that chain'd my better judgement, cramp'd all my strength of mind--ruin'd all my prospects."

— Tytler, Alexander Fraser (1747-1813); Schiller (1759-1805)

Date: 1792

"I should be a pitiful bungler indeed, if I knew not yet how to tear a son from the heart of his father, were they link'd together with chains of iron."

— Tytler, Alexander Fraser (1747-1813); Schiller (1759-1805)

Date: w. 1791-2

"But, sent from God, his presence leaves, / To gather home his ripen'd sheaves, / To call encumber'd souls away / From fleshly bonds to boundless day, / (As when the winged hours excite, / And summon forth the morning-light) / And each to convoy to her place / Before the Eternal Father's face."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1796

"Mind and body are both subdued by affliction and chains; their heads are fixed between great wooden forks, supported behind with iron cramps; not one can stir a step without the other; all walk in procession panting under the heavy fork."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Fetters are needless where the affections are rivetted by beneficent actions. Thou hast left me free, and I am thy slave for ever; with my arms in bonds, I could have escaped, but thou fetterest my heart—I will never forsake thee!"

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Alas! there are invisible fetters which no mortal can wrench! both soft and firm are the bonds of virtue, no force can loosen its strong ties, no sword divide it from my soul! it has guided me from childhood to the age of woman, it presided over my marriage, it has attended me in all my wretched...

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1798

"My mother I have never seen--never by affection's ties has she chained my soul to her's!"

— Plumptre, Anne (1760-1818); Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1798

"Up, break thy fetters! Burst thy prison! My soul is free! My essence knows no chains."

— Render, William (fl. 1790-1801); August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819)