Date: 1701

"So when against the Tide the Sailor toils / to force his loaded Bark, the Current foils / His Pains, down Stream the master'd Vessel's drove"

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: December 14, 1708

"Passions are too hurrying to last; Vapours that start from a Mercurial Brain, whose wild Chimera's flush the lighter Faculties, which tir'd i'th' vain pursuit of fancy'd Pleasures."

— Baker, Thomas (b. 1680-1)

Date: 1728

"When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows, / How vainly Reason would its Force oppose; / Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind, / She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1739

"Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart: / [Drama] pours it strong and instant through the heart"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1753

The "Sunshine of a northern Beauty is too feeble to thaw the icy Heart of a French Courtier"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1763

"But fancy's pictures float upon the brain"

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1775

Love and fear may dry up "soft springs of pity" in the heart and freeze them

— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)

Date: 1775

Faded ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)

Date: 1775

One may be so distressed as to be given "hydrostatics"

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)

Date: 1787

"Quick, you iron-souled scoundrels! Don't you know he is in distress?"

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809); Shakespeare