Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1712

"And as the Sun by his own Heat exhales / Clouds from the Sea, and Fogs from marshy Vales; / Which (tho' base-born) ambitious higher move, / Prevent the Light, and hide the Worlds above. / So from corporeal Dregs the Mists condense, / And intercept the Messengers of Sense."

— Cobb, Samuel (1675-1713); Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718); Quillet, Claudius (fl.1640-1656)

Date: 1712

"The clouded Images their March delay, / Till the rouz'd Soul, by a superiour Ray / Breaks thro' the Shade, and urges on the Day."

— Cobb, Samuel (1675-1713); Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718); Quillet, Claudius (fl.1640-1656)

Date: 1712

"Our Intellectual, like the Body's Eye, / Whilst in the Womb, no Object can descry; / Yet is dispos'd to entertain the Light, / And judge of Things when offer'd to the Sight."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"When she to foreign Objects Audience gives, / Their Strokes and Motions in the Brain perceives, / As these Perceptions we Ideas name, / From her own Pow'r and active Nature came, / So when discern'd by Intellectual Light, / Her self her various Passions does excite, / To Ill her Hate, to Good he...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Quick, as a darted Beam of Light, they [the spirits] go, / Thro' diff'rent Paths to diff'rent Organs flow, / Whence they reflect as swiftly to the Brain, / To give it Pleasure, or to give it Pain."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"To view thy Self inflect thy Reason's Ray, / Nature's replenish'd Theater survey."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"While from the Heart rich Streams with Vigour spring, / Bound thro' their Roads, and dance their Vital Ring; / And Spirits, swift as Sun-beams thro' the Skies, / Dart thro' thy Nerves, and sparkle in thy Eyes."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Strong as the Winds, and sprightly as the Light? / She [the mind] moves unweary'd, as the active Fire, / And, like the Flame, her Flights to Heav'n aspire."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Thoughts in an Instant thro' the Zodiack run, / A Year's long Journey for the lab'ring Sun: / Then down they shoot, as swift as darting Light, / Nor can opposing Clouds retard their Flight: / Thro' Subterranean Vaults with Ease they sweep, / And search the hidden Wonders of the Deep."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)