Date: 1790
"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still / To ruin man, besets the female heart, / Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames / The hungry passions, that like arid flax / Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze."
preview | full record— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)
Date: 1790
"He conducted himself towards her with frigid indifference, which served only to inflame the passion it was meant to chill."
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1790
"They compared this with the foregoing circumstance of the figure and the light which had appeared; their imaginations kindled wild conjectures, and they submitted their opinions to Madame, entreating her to inform them sincerely, whether she believed that disembodied spirits were ever permitted ...
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1790
"Quick the magic raptures steal / O'er the fancy kindling brain."
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1790
"When I knelt at the altar, the sacred flame of pure devotion glowed in my heart, and elevated my soul to sublimity."
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1790
"Our minds, when young, are like tinder--they will catch any spark, whether emitted by Virtue or by Vice; and it is to be lamented, that the latter emits them more than the former."
preview | full record— Trusler, John (1735-1820)
Date: December 1790
"But it is not that enthusiastic flame which in Greece and Rome consumed every sordid passion: no, self is the focus; and the disparting rays rise not above our foggy atmosphere."
preview | full record— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Date: 1791
"If you can but kindle in your mind any strong desire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory."
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1791
"This is that incense of the heart / Whose fragrance smells to heaven."
preview | full record— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)
Date: 1791
"In the rich realms of polished taste, / Where judgment penetrates to find / The treasures of the unwrought mind, / Where conversation's ardent spirit / Refines from dross the ore of merit, / Where emulation aids the flame / And stamps the sterling bust of fame."
preview | full record— West, Jane (1758-1852)