Date: 1759

"When we read, let our imagination kindle at their charms; when we write, let our judgment shut them out of our thoughts; treat even Homer himself, as his royal admirer was treated by the cynic; bid him stand aside, nor shade our Composition from the beams of our own genius; for nothing Original ...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1759

"He compared reason to the sun, of which the light is constant, uniform, and lasting; and fancy to a meteor, of bright but transitory lustre, irregular in its motion, and delusive in its direction."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"From the very kind and warm Expressions of fatherly Fondness in this Letter, a small Ray of Hope darted into Lady Dellwyn's Mind."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1759

"His mighty mind travelled round the intellectual world; and, with a more than eagle's eye, saw, and has pointed out blank spaces, or dark spots in it, on which the human mind never shone."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1759

"Few authors of distinction but have experienced something of this nature, at the first beamings of their yet unsuspected Genius on their hitherto dark Composition: The writer starts at it, as at a lucid Meteor in the night; is much surprized; can scarce believe it true"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1760

"Dim burns the Lamp of Life; this Breast heaves slow; / My Soul shall soon the last sad Journey go."

— Langhorne,William (1721-1772)

Date: 1760

"On clouds, where Fancy's beam amusive plays, / Shall heedless Hope the towering fabric raise?"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1760

"Say, pines not Virtue for the lingering morn, / On this dark wild condemn'd to roam forlorn? / Where Reason's meteor-rays, with sickly glow, / O'er the dun gloom a dreadful glimmering throw? / Disclosing dubious to th' affrighted eye / O'erwhelming mountains tottering from on high, / Black billo...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1760, 1776

"Smit by thy rapture-beaming eye / Deep flashing through the midnight of their mind, / The sable bands combined, / Where Fear's black banner bloats the troubled sky, / Appall'd retire."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1760, 1776

"Fond he surveys thy mild maternal face, / His bashful eye still kindling as he views, / And, while thy lenient arm supports his pace, / With beating heart the upland path pursues: / The path that leads, where, hung sublime, / And seen afar, youth's gallant trophies, bright / In Fancy's rainbow r...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)