Date: 1726

"'Twould be a bad World with most of us, if Reason were always to rule."

— Southerne, Thomas (1659-1746)

Date: 1726, 1781

In Bedlam a "shiv'ring Monarch keeps his awful Court, / And far and wide, as boundless Thought can stray, / Extends a vast imaginary Sway"

— Fitzgerald, Thomas (1695-1752)

Date: 1726, 1753

"Excited, thus, the smother'd fire, at length, / Bursts into blaze, and burns, with open strength: / That image, which, before, but sooth'd the mind, / Now lords it there, and rages, unconfined"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: September 10, 1726

"Now, according to my supposition, there being no active intelligent Being, who, by his Presence and Superintendency, governs and directs the Course of those vagabond Images, every thing in the Brain resembles the fortuitous concourse of Atoms."

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

Date: 1726

"[I]n vain I strove to conquer a Passion that had mingled with my Soul, and reigned in every Vein"

— Aubin, Penelope (1679?-1731?)

Date: 1726, 1753

"Divinely proud of independent will, / Prince of your passions, live their sovereign still."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750); Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1726

"Reason alone is sufficient to govern a Rational Creature; which was therefore a Character we had no Pretence to challenge"

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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...

— 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...

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: [1726]

"Being alone, under the pretence of diverting her Melancholy, he desir’d to sup with her, which she consented to with pleasure; but he took care in filling out the Wine to mingle something in it of a more intoxicating kind, which tho’ she drank of but with moderation, had the effect he aim’d at, ...

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)