Date: [1726]
"I will not (continued the God of tender Wishes) prolong the little Narrative I have to make you, by a repetition of her Lamentations when alone, and at liberty to indulge them; you may believe they were extremely violent, and suitable to the Occasion: but as soon as Reason had the power of resum...
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: [1726]
"Endeavour at least, to throw each darling Failing from thy Soul; and those Reflections which, in thy coolest Hours of Thought, Reason inspires, retain about thee always; then canst thou never be by any ill Passion sway'd, nor do a Deed which Conscience can condemn: Conscience and Reason still go...
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1749
"In return to which, Conscience, like a good Lawyer, attempted to distinguish between an absolute Breach of Trust, as here where the Goods were delivered, and a bare Concealment of what was found, as in the former Case. Avarice presently treated this with Ridicule, called it a Distinction without...
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1759
"He shewed, with great strength of sentiment, and variety of illustration, that human nature is degraded and debased, when the lower faculties predominate over the higher; that when fancy, the parent of passion, usurps the dominion of the mind, nothing ensues but the natural effect of unlawful go...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1760-7
"Thus conscience, this once able monitor,--placed on high as a judge within us, and intended by our Maker as a just and equitable one too,--by an unhappy train of causes and impediments, takes often such imperfect cognizance of what passes,--does its office so negligently,--sometimes so corruptly...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
"Thus conscience, this once able monitor, --placed on high as a judge within us, and intended by our Maker as a just and equitable one too,--by an unhappy train of causes and impediments, takes often such imperfect cognizance of what passes,--does its office so negligently,--sometimes so corruptl...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1773
"But he felt not that contrition which results from ingenuous sorrow for our offences; his soul was ruled by that gloomy demon, who looks only to the anguish of their punishment, and accuses the hand of providence, for calamity which himself has occasioned."
preview | full record— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)
Date: 1777
"His heart, for a moment, revolted at the idea of seduction; but he soon silenced the unwelcome monitor."
preview | full record— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)
Date: 1790
"Love comes to the bosom under the gentle forms of esteem, of sympathy, of confidence: we listen with dangerous pleasure to the seducing accents of his voice, till he lifts the fatal veil which concealed him from our view, and reigns a tyrant in the soul. Reason is then an oracle no longer consul...
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Date: 1797
"'Behold, what is woman!' said he--'The slave of her passions, the dupe of her senses! When pride and revenge speak in her breast, she defies obstacles, and laughs at crimes!'" "Assail but her senses; let music, for instance, touch some feeble chord of her heart, and echo to her fancy, and lo! al...
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)