Date: 1755

"Then shall my cruel Foe, abash'd, recede, / Finding his artful Snares are vainly spread. / Of rolling Years, eleven are past in Pain, / Since I was doom'd to wear the galling Chain: / The Chain which am'rous Minds are forc'd to bear, / Still to the most Submissive, most severe."

— Masters, Mary (1694-1771)

Date: 1756

"A lazy languor creeps along my veins; / Dull, and more dull my heavy eyelids grow, / And ev'ry sense accepts the leaden chains."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1760

"There is a certain pleasing force that binds, / Faster than chains do slaves, two willing minds."

— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)

Date: 1760?

The Grace teaches "On the Subject when to be / Grave or gay, reserv'd or free: / The speaking Air, th' impassion'd Eye, / The living Soul of Symmetry; / And that soft Sympathy that binds / In magic Chains congenial Minds."

— Langhorne, John (1735-1779)

Date: 1760, 1850

Friendship is "The indissoluble tie that binds, / In equal chains, two sister minds."

— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)

Date: 1762

"Ne’er did thy Voice assume a Master’s Pow’r, / Nor force Assent to what thy Precepts taught; / But bid my independent Spirit soar, / In all the Freedom of unfett’red Thought"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1763

"Doth Virtue in thy bosom brighter glow, / Or from a Spring more pure doth Action flow? / Is not thy Soul bound with those very chains / Which shackle us, or is that SELF, which reigns / O'er Kings and Beggars, which in all we see / Most strong and sov'reign, only weak in Thee?"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1765

"Warm in the raptures of divine desire, / Burst the soft chain that curbs th'aspiring mind."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1766

"Fancy leads the fetter'd senses / Captives to her fond controul; / Merit may have rich pretences, / But 'tis Fancy fires the soul."

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1766

"Far beyond the bonds of meaning / Fancy flies, a Fairy queen!"

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)