Date: 1715

"Thy Virtues flash, / They break at once on my astonish'd Soul; / As if the Curtains of the Dark were drawn, / To let in Day at Midnight."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1715

"Light of my Soul, my Hearts refined part, why dost thou weep, why like distilling Roses waste, dissolving thus thy Beauties to a Dew?"

— Bullock, Christopher (bap. 1690, d. 1722)

Date: 1717

"To lead us safe thro' Error's thorny Maze, / Reason exerts her pure Etherial Rays"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"For it proceeds from the Light of Nature in my Breast, which tells me that my Life is not my own, but God's, who gave it, and that I am answerable for any Neglect of mine in not preserving the same."

— Earbery, Matthias (1690-1740)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Dim lights of life that burn a length of years, / Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1718

"When first to Think your active Mind essay'd, / And young Ideas in your Fancy play'd, / While dawning Reason's unexperienc'd Ray / Drew a faint Scetch of Intellectual Day, / Your Parents, who the Laws of Heav'n revere, / And make Immortal Bliss their pious Care, / Assiduous strove by mild Instru...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"But the sweet Bowl's intoxicating Fume / Will by degrees our vanquish'd Sense benumb, / And o'er the Mind diffuse Egyptian Gloom."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718 [first published 1684-1694]

"I am indeed of Opinion, that the Ancients called Man 'Phos', that is 'Light', so that from the Affinity of their Natures, strong desires are bred in Mankind, of continually seeing and being seen to each other: Nay some Philosophers hold the Soul it self to be essentially LIGHT, which among other...

— Plutarch (c. 46-120)

Date: 1719, 1720

"For, says he, PUNS are like so many Torch-Lights in the Head, that give the Soul a very distinct View of those Images, which she before seemed to groap after as if she had been imprisoned in a Dungeon."

— Sheridan, Thomas (1687-1738)

Date: w 1710, 1720

"Whilst like the Lamp's last Flame, their trembling Souls / Are on the Wing to leave their mortal Goals."

— Ramsay, Allan (1684-1758)