Date: 1761

"At length I wake to Reason and to thee; / Thy well-lov'd form, like the all-glorious Sun / After a gloom of horror dawns upon me, / And day breaks in on my benighted soul."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1779

"His mind / Knowledge illumines, and bright Virtue loves."

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1779

"Darting like hidden sun-beams on my mind, / And make it drunk with bliss."

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1782

"Why drive him from my presence? he might now / Raise my sunk soul, and my benighted mind / Enlighten with religion's cheering ray."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1782

"Proceed, proceed, thrice venerable sage! / Enlighten my dark mind with this new ray, / This dawning of salvation!"

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1787

"It is enough--my scruples are at an end--my prejudices, like clouds before the rising sun, vanish before the lights of your superior reason."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1788

"Within the heart which love illumes, / And blesses with his sacred rays, / If meaner passion e'er presumes, / It fades before the hallow'd blaze."

— Cobb, James (1756-1818)

Date: 1792

Light may break in and great ideas may dawn upon the mind

— Tytler, Alexander Fraser (1747-1813); Schiller (1759-1805)

Date: 1792

"That sweet enchantress ... Can give to Fancy's work a blaze more bright, / Or Reason's steady lamp feed with new light."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1799

"Oh thou, our Father above, who surveyest the whole world with one glance, diffuse thy light into our hearts!"

— Plumptre, Anne (1760-1818); Kotzebue (1761-1819)