Date: 1739

"Long my imprison'd spirit lay, / Fast bound in sin and nature's night: / Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; / I woke; the dungeon flamed with light; / My chains fell off, my heart was free, / I rose, went forth, and follow'd Thee."

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1739

"To usher forth the Virtues of the Mind! / From Nature's Chain, from Earthly Dross set free, / One only Appetite remained in Thee."

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1740

"In vain we forge coercive Chains, to bind / The strongest, noblest Passion of the Mind."

— Duck, Stephen (1705-1756)

Date: 1741

"Poor Mind, who heard all with extreme moderation, / Thought it now time to speak, and make her allegation: / ''Tis I that, methinks, have most cause to complain, / Who am cramped and confined like a slave in a chain.'"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1741

"He knew, that vain was ev'ry Art, design'd / To check the Freedom of the humane Will; / That Restraints could shackle up the Mind, / Which, self-determin'd, kept her Empire still."

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)

Date: 1741

"'I've a friend,' answers Mind, 'who, though slow, is yet sure, / And will rid me at last of your insolent power: / Will knock down your walls, the whole fabric demolish, / And at once your strong holds and my slavery abolish: / And while in your dust your dull ruins decay, / I'll snap off my cha...

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1741

"His weary Soul, from earthly Bondage freed, / Nor fled to Heav'n, where Some say Spirits fly; / Nor vanish'd into Air, as Others plead; / Nor chang'd into a Star adorn'd the Sky; / Nor sought direct (a solitary Shade!) / In Pluto's gloomy Realm, Eternal Rest: / But thro' Traduction, (as his Moth...

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)

Date: 1742

"Not all the chains that tyrants use / Shall bind their souls to vice."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1742

"By Him instructed, even the meanest Prince / Shall rise to envy'd Greatness, shall advance / His dreaded Pow'r above Restraint and Fear, / And all the Rules, that in fantastick Chains / Inferior Minds confine."

— West, Gilbert (1703-1756)

Date: 1742

"Our freedom chain'd; quite wingless our desire; / In sense dark-prison'd all that ought to soar / Prone to the centre; crawling in the dust; / Dismounted every great and glorious aim; / Embruted every faculty divine; / Heart-buried in the rubbish of the world."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)