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: 1793

" When painful truths invade the mind, / Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind, / And hates th' officious ray."

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1796

"He ponders on the world,--abhors the whole; / While black as night, his gloomy thought expands / O'er life's perplexing paths, and barren sands"

— Merry, Robert (1755-1798)

Date: 1796

"Reason's dying lamp / Scarce brighter burns than instinct in their breast"

— Bruce, Michael (1746-1767)

Date: 1796

"The effect [of wit on the mind] is strong,--because it's odd, / Like fire electric from a clod; / Or when fix'd air puts out a light, / Tho' vital makes it blaze more bright."

— Courtenay, John Lees (1775?-1794)

Date: 1803

The muse "beams a visionary day: / Bright as the magic torch she early gave / To light thy ven'trous way, through fancy's secret cave."

— Hunter [née Home], Anne (1742-1821)

Date: 1805

"And Thou, Minerva, pr'ythee say, / Why with so bright a mental ray, / And all that marks the blue-ey'd Maid, / Hast thou this favour'd Boy array'd?"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1806

"Tho' party-zeal inflam'd his iron heart, / And prejudice sharp pointed ev'ry dart; / With glowing thoughts, his mind profusely teem'd."

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

Date: 1810

"Reason holds her lamp no more; / Save that sometimes, with glimmering light, / She gives thy misery to thy sight"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1811, 1812

"The soul, a cheering lamp, the scene illumes, / Fed with the splendour of ethereal rays, / And bright'ning still, as still the frame decays"

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)