Date: 1766
"We talked of the pleasures of temperance, and of the sun-shine in the mind unpolluted with guilt."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1769
"Pox on their philosophy! Instead of demonstrating the immortality of the soul, they have plainly proved the soul is a chimæra, a will o' the wisp, a bubble, a term, a word, a nothing!"
preview | full record— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)
Date: 1774, rev. 1787, 1779 in English
"A darkness spreads over my eyes; heaven and earth seem to dwell in my soul and absorb all its powers, like the idea of a beloved mistress."
preview | full record— Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832)
Date: 1778, 1779
"As soon would I discuss the effect of sound with the deaf, or the nature of colours with the blind, as aim at illuminating with conviction a mind so warped by prejudice, so much the slave of unruly and illiberal passions."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1777, 1780
"While he prayed, he felt an enlargement of heart beyond what he had ever experienced before; all idle fears were dispersed, and his heart glowed with divine love and affiance: He seemed raised above the world and all its pursuits."
preview | full record— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)