Date: 1776
"When Mrs. Montagu, in the purest and most elegant language, delivers sentiments equally just and sublime as his, we are surprised and delighted; the gracefulness of her manner seems to add beauty to her thoughts; her words sink into our hearts, like the softest sounds of the most perfect harmony...
preview | full record— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)
Date: 1776
"Not minds of melancholy strain, / Still silent, or that still complain, / Can the dear bondage bless; / As well may heavenly concert spring / From two old lutes with ne'er a string, / Or none besides the bass."
preview | full record— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)
Date: 1777
"When his reason returned, it settled into a melancholy, which time has soothed, not extinguished, which indeed seems to have become the habitual tone of his mind."
preview | full record— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)
Date: 1782
"I meant to have repeated the lesson, to have tuned your whole heart to compassion, and to have taught you the sad duties of sympathising humanity."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1788
"The caresses of an animal he had so long remembered, touched some chord of the heart that vibrated to softer emotions than those which had for the last three hours possessed him--he burst into tears."
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1788
"Emmeline would then have taken him; but she said no; and sitting down on the ground, held him in her lap, till Barret who had seen her from a window, came out and took him from her; to which, as to a thing usual, she consented, and then walked calmly home with Emmeline, who, extremely discompose...
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)