Date: 1756, 1766

"This is the excellent law of reason or nature. There is a light sufficient in every human breast, to conduct the soul to perfect day, if men will follow it right onwards"

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

Date: 1756, 1766

"Every ray of reason participates of the majesty of that Being to whom it belongs, and whose attribute it is"

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

Date: 1757

"The lamp of sense, that glows in ev'ry breast, / Nature illumes, that man may stand confest"

— Boyce, Samuel (d. 1775)

Date: 1757

"They who have not taken these methods, if their Taste decides quickly, it is always uncertainly; and their quickness is owing to their presumption and rashness, and not to any sudden irradiation that in a moment dispels all darkness from their minds."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"Clouds, all the while have hung upon thy brow, / Nor broke, nor parted by one gleam of joy."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"Darkly a project peers upon my mind, / Like the red moon when rising in the east, / Cross'd and divided by strange-colour'd clouds."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: 1757

"During such calm sunshine of the mind, these spectres of false divinity never make their appearance."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1758

"Let inward beauty charm the mental sight; / Let godlike Reason, beaming bright, / Chase far away each gloomy shade, / Till VIRTUE's heav'nly form display'd / Alone shall captivate my soul, / And her divinest love possess me whole!"

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1758

"But when, in Parties of Conversation, she glows by the Beams of Reason, then command her [the soul] to speak from Inspiration and utter the Oracles of Justice [like a Grasshopper]."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1758

"While in your hearts the flames of love may burn, / To dress the vault, like lamps in sacred urn."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)