Date: 1814

"That a girl of fourteen, acting only on her own unassisted reason, should err in the method of reform was not wonderful; and Fanny soon became more disposed to admire the natural light of the mind which could so early distinguish justly, than to censure severely the faults of conduct to which it...

— Austen, Jane (1775-1817)

Date: 1818

"Astonishment and doubt first seized them; and a shortly succeeding ray of common sense added some bitter emotions of shame."

— Austen, Jane (1775-1817)

Date: 1847

"His brightening mind brightened his features, and added spirit and nobility to their aspect."

— Brontë, Emily (1818-1848)

Date: 1851

"No, but put a sky-light on top of his head to illuminate inwards."

— Melville, Herman (1819-1891)

Date: 1854

"She turned her head, and the light of her face shone in upon the midnight of his mind."

— Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)

Date: 1854

"Remembrances of how she had journeyed to the little that she knew, by the enchanted roads of what she and millions of innocent creatures had hoped and imagined; of how, first coming upon Reason through the tender light of Fancy, she had seen it a beneficent god, deferring to gods as great as its...

— Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)

Date: 1854

"I ha' lookn at't an thowt o' thee, Rachael, till the muddle in my mind have cleared awa, above a bit, I hope."

— Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)

Date: 1860

"It is doubtless almost incredible to instructed minds of the present day that a boy of twelve, not belonging strictly to 'the masses' who are now understood to have the monopoly of mental darkness, should have had no distinct idea how there came to be such a thing as Latin on this earth: yet so ...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"Among the threads of the past which the stricken man had gathered up, he had omitted the bill of sale: the flash of memory had only lit up prominent ideas, and he sank into forgetfulness again with half his humiliation unlearned."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"At last there was total stiilness, and poor Tulliver's dimly-lighted soul had for ever ceased to be vexed with the painful riddle of this world."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)