Date: 1794

"The gloom of these shades, their solitary silence, except when the breeze swept over their summits, the tremendous precipices of the mountains, that came partially to the eye, each assisted to raise the solemnity of Emily's feelings into awe; she saw only images of gloomy grandeur, or of dreadfu...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1794

"A superstitious dread stole over her; she stood listening, for some moments, in trembling expectation, and then endeavoured to recollect her thoughts, and to reason herself into composure; but human reason cannot establish her laws on subjects, lost in the obscurity of imagination, any more than...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

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: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"But this obscurity sometimes proceeds from a mixture of light and darkness in the author's mind; from a partial ray which strikes upon an angle, instead of spreading itself over the surface of an object."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

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: 1796

"Edgar, to whom the sun-beams of the mind gave a glow which not all the sparkling rays of the brightest eyes could emit, respected her modesty too highly to combat it, and, dropping the subject, enquired what was become of Eugenia."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"He pronounced the most severe sentences upon offenders, which the moment after compassion induced him to mitigate: he undertook the most daring enterprizes, which the fear of their consequences soon obliged him to abandon: his inborn genius darted a brilliant light upon subjects the most obscure...

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1797

"May the soft rays of dawning hope impart / Reviving Patience to my fainting heart."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1797

"This place, perhaps, infests my mind with congenial gloom, for I find that, at this moment, there is scarcely a superstition too dark for my credulity."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)