Date: May 10, 1704

"And I think the reason is easy to be assigned: for there is a peculiar string in the harmony of human understanding which, in several individuals, is exactly of the same tuning. Thus, if you can dexterously screw up to its right key and then strike gently upon it, whenever you have the good fort...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1780

"If my eventful tale / Hath touch'd the chords of pity in your heart, / And swell'd the sympathetic tear--soft tribute! / By gentle minds, to sorrow ever paid, / --Know, 'tis no stranger's woes I have related; / I am the object of my own sad story."

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)