Date: 1747, 1811

"'Yes, if his soul to reason's rule resign'd, / 'And heaven's own views fair-opening on his mind,/ 'Caught from bright nature's flame the living ray, / 'Through passion's cloud pour'd in resistless day; / 'And taught mankind in reas'ning Pride's despite, / 'That God is wise, and all that is righ...

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1746; December 17, 1747 [actually January, 1748]

"To me thy better gifts impart, / Each moral beauty of the heart / By studious thought refin’d: / For Wealth, the smiles of glad Content, / For Pow’r, it samplest, best extent, / An empire o’er my mind."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1747

"With such goodness is our nature constituted, so gentle is the reign of virtue, that it restrains not its subjects from that enjoyment of bodily pleasures, which upon a right estimate will be found the sweetest: altho’ this she demands, that we should still preserve so lively a sense of the supe...

— Hutcheson, Francis (1694-1746)

Date: 1747

"But on the other hand under the empire of sensuality there's no admittance for the virtues; all the nobler joys from a conscious goodness, a sense of virtue, and deserving well of others, must be banished; and generally along with them even the rational manly pleasures of the ingenious arts."

— Hutcheson, Francis (1694-1746)

Date: 1747

"E'en stern ecclesiasticks laid aside / (To welcome him) their ruling passion, pride."

— Gilbert, Thomas (bap. 1713, d. 1766)

Date: 1747

Jesus can vindicate his "right Divine" and "Conquer this rebellious heart"

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1748

"[A]nd in the mean time went to dress, with an intention of visiting Mrs. Snapper and Miss, whom I had utterly neglected and indeed almost forgot, since my dear Narcissa had resumed the empire of my soul."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1747-8

"Riches were, are, and always will be, his predominant passion."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1747-8

"My predominant passion is Girl, not Gold; nor value I This, but as it helps me to That, and gives me independence."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1747-8

"But let me touch upon thy predominant passion, Revenge; for Love [What can be the love of a rake?] is but second to that, as I have often told thee, tho' it has set thee into raving at me."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)