Date: w. c. 1709, 1711
"Tutors, like Virtuoso's, oft inclin'd / By strange transfusion to improve the mind, / Draw off the sense we have, to pour in new; / Which yet with all their skill, they ne'er could do."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: w. c. 1709, 1711
"But if in noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purg'd off, of spleen and sour disdain; / Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes, / Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: w. c. 1709, 1711
"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1762
"It is accordingly observed by Longinus, in his treatise of the Sublime, that the proper time for metaphor, is when the passions are so swelled as to hurry on like a torrent."
preview | full record— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)
Date: 1762
"A tide of connected perceptions, glides gently into the mind, and produceth no perturbation. An object on the other hand breaking in unexpectedly, sounds an alarm, rouses the mind out of its calm state, and directs its whole attention upon the object, which, if agreeable, becomes doubly so."
preview | full record— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)
Date: 1762
"The world we inhabit is replete with things not less remarkable for their variety than their number. These, unfolded by the wonderful mechanism of external sense, furnish the mind with many perceptions, which, joined with ideas of memory, of imagination, and of reflection, form a complete train ...
preview | full record— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)
Date: 1783
"[W]hat Horace observes of words is equally true of thoughts ... every superfluity is lost, like water poured into a vessel already full."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)