Date: 1758, 1781
"Alas! All Souls are subject to like Fate, / All sympathizing with the Body's State; / Let the fierce Fever burn thro' ev'ry Vein, / And drive the madding Fury to the Brain, / Nought can the Fervour of his Frenzy cool, / But Aristotle's self's a Parish Fool!"
preview | full record— Hawkins, William (1721-1801)
Date: January 27, 1759.
"That it is vain to shrink from what cannot be avoided, and to hide that from ourselves which must some time be found, is a truth which we all know, but which all neglect, and perhaps none more than the speculative reasoner, whose thoughts are always from home, whose eye wanders over life, whose ...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1767
"A holy ardor was kindled in his breast, which he had never felt before; he found his faculties enlarged, his mind was transported above this world; he felt as it were unimbodied, and an involuntary adjuration burst from his lips."
preview | full record— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)
Date: 1773
"While others,--consecrate to higher aims, / Whose hallowed bosoms glow with purer flames, / Love in their heart, persuasion in their tongue,-- / With words of peace shall charm the listening throng, / Draw the dread veil that wraps the' eternal throne, / And launch our souls into the bright unkn...
preview | full record— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)
Date: 1774
"When an ingenious track of thinking presents itself, though but casually, to true genius, occupied it may be with something else, imagination darts alongst it with great rapidity; and by this rapidity its ardor is more inflamed. The velocity of its motion sets it on fire, like a chariot wheel wh...
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1777
"At present in my brain there floats / A thousand parti-colored motes; / From which, if time would but permit, / I might sift some sparks of wit."
preview | full record— Savage, Mary (fl. 1763-1777)
Date: 1779
"If one spark of virtue / Yet hovers in his mind--Oh, grant me, Heaven! / To kindle it afresh, and be the flame immortal!"
preview | full record— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)
Date: June, 1793
"'Tis fancy, powerful fancy wings / The poet's flight whene'er he sings, / Fancy strikes the living lyre, / Fancy sheds poetic fire!"
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: August 1817
"Whenever any object takes such a hold on the mind as to make us dwell upon it, and brood over it, melting the heart in love, or kindling it to a sentiment of admiration;--whenever a movement of imagination or passion is impressed on the mind, by which it seeks to prolong and repeat the emotion, ...
preview | full record— Hazlitt, William (1778-1830)
Date: 1922
"I plucked my soul out of its secret place, / And held it to the mirror of my eye, / To see it like a star against the sky, / A twitching body quivering in space, / A spark of passion shining on my face."
preview | full record— McKay, Claude (1889-1948)