Date: 1723, 1740

Love is a "glorious Sun within our Souls, / Whose Influence so much controuls; / Ev'n dull and heavy Lumps of Love, / Quicken'd by [it], more lively move"

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: February 22, 1723

"If my Flaminius ever wou'd reward / My constant ardor, with an equal flame; / Engag'd by such endearing decencies, / As make the lamp of love in Herod's breast / To burn so bright, and never to consume."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1723, 1725

"AS Tapers languish at th' Approach of Day," and as the "Book of Fame" may be "Eraz'd and blotted," "So fully o'er the Soul may a lover's Influence reign, "That not one Rebel-Thought [its] Sway disdains"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1724

"As a Stone in a Wall, fastened with Mortar, compressed by surrounding Stones, and involved in a Million of other Attractions, cannot fall to the Earth, nor sensibly exert its natural Gravity, no, not so much as to discover there is such a Principle in it; just so, the intelligent Soul, in this h...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1724

"I not upbraid your love, but your wild passions, / Which wou'd, like envious shades, eclipse those beauties, / That else, with justice, sure, must charm mankind!"

— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)

Date: Monday, August 24. 1724

"Like Divinities quitting their Shrines, they disrobe themselves of their Bodies; and intermingle their meeting Minds, as we see Two Lights incorporate.--Their Souls glide out, from their Eyes, to snatch Embraces, at a Distance; and return, inrich'd, with the fancy'd Treasure."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1724

"When all at once / A thousand anxious Thoughts that slept by Day, / Swarm'd in my Brain, 'till it resembled Hell, / Hot, dark and hot: my sick Imagination, / Assisted by the Shades of Night, would give / A gloomy turn to each Idea there."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1724

"I cannot speak the rest--the Thought is Hell-- / How my Brain glows! now Reason keep thy Seat."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1724, 1725

One may be "puzzled with a too great Variety" and "have their Judgments dimm'd with the Confusion of Ideas"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1724

"[S]o with my Eyes open, and with my Conscience, as I may say, awake, I sinn'd, knowing it to be a Sin, but having no Power to resist; when this had thus made a Hole in my Heart, and I was come to such a height, as to transgress against the Light of my own Conscience, I was then fit for any Wicke...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)