Date: 1667

"Had we forgotten His, or to strange Names / Of Idol-gods stretch'd out our suppliant hands, / Should not God know, and visit this in flames, / Who the vast Empire of all hearts commands, / And thoughts, more than we actions, understands?"

— Woodford, Samuel (1636-1700)

Date: 1700

"Conscience alone, my awful Judge within, / Does not acquit me of enormous Sin / But God and all his sacred Angels, bear / Witness to this, and will my Justice clear."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1700

"To th' uncorrupted Judge within thy Breast / Thy Conscience I appeal; will that attest / That thou believ'st what thou hast boldly said, / That Job does God in Righteousness exceed?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1744, 1753

"But this Agreement of Orgueil and his Wife, to bury Camilla's Father with Decency, by the Pleasure it gave her, renewed David's former Blindness, again enslaved his Mind to Orgueil, and fixed his Chain as strong as ever."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1744, 1753

"Thus my fancied Friends became my Plagues, and my real ones, by their Sufferings, tore up my Heart by the Roots, and frightened me into the bearing the insolent Persecutions of the others--I found my Mind in such Chains as are much worse than any Slavery of the Body."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1757

"Oh, son of genius! Friend of art! / Garrick, thou monarch of the heart!"

— Boyce, Samuel (d. 1775)

Date: 1765

"Thro' rooted vice my spirits fail, / Which o'er my heart an empire wins, / O let thy mercy countervail / To cover all our sins."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1765

"Be ye not like to horse or mule, / That are not bless'd with reason's rule."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: w. April 18, 1776; 1777

"Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)