Date: 1701
"Their brain's so cool, their passion seldom burns; / For all's condens'd before the flame returns; The fermentation's of so weak a matter, / The humid damps the fume, and runs it all to water."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1711
"When Fancy makes superior Flight her Aim, / Wing'd with this vig'rous, clear seraphick Flame, / She ranges Nature's universal Frame; / Bright Seeds of Thought from various Objects takes, / Whence her fair Scenes and Images she makes: / Spirits so swift, so fine, so bold, so strong, / Gave Milton...
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1713
"Away the Skilful Doctor comes / Of Recipes and Med'cines full, / To check the giddy Whirl of Nature's Fires, / If so th' unruly Case requires; / Or with his Cobweb-cleansing Brooms / To sweep and clear the over-crouded Scull, / If settl'd Spirits flag, and make the Patient dull."
preview | full record— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)
Date: 1724
"All my fierce passions rise with that reflection, / Inward they rage--a winding train takes fire, / The flashy blaze runs swift thro' ev'ry vein, / And my brain splits with agony!"
preview | full record— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)
Date: 1728
Say, "How Fancy every Shape puts on? / How kindling Sparks her Form compose, / And whence the constant-shining Train, / That Mem'ry, or Experience shows?"
preview | full record— Pattison, William (1706-1727)
Date: 1731
Say "How Fancy ev'ry Shape puts on, / How kindling Sparks her Form compose, / And whence that ever shining Train / That Memory or Experience shows."
preview | full record— Travers, H. (f. 1730)
Date: 1735-6
"He, too, the fire of fancy feeds intense, / With all the train of passions thence derived: / Not kindling quick, a noisy transient blaze, / But gradual, silent, lasting, and profound."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1737
"Whence Talbot's friendship glows to future times, / Intrepid, warm; of kindred tempers born; / Nursed, by experience, into slow esteem, / Calm confidence unbounded, love not blind, / And the sweet light from mingled minds disclosed, / From mingled chymic oils as bursts the fire."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: October, 1739
"Teach me to cool my passion's fires, / Make me the judge of my desires / The master of my heart."
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1742
"Thoughts disentangle, passing o'er the lip; / Clean runs the thread; if not, 'tis thrown away / Or kept to tie up nonsense for a song; / Song, fashionably fruitless; such as stains / The fancy, and unhallow'd passion fires; / Chiming her saints to Cytherea's fane."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)