Date: 1772
"In Fancy's Mirror, we but darkling see, / What must, hereafter, our Advantage be."
preview | full record— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)
Date: 1773
"Soaring though air to find the bright abode, / Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God, / We on thy pinions can surpass the wind, / And leave the rolling universe behind; / From star to star the mental optics rove, / Measure the skies, and range the realms above."
preview | full record— Wheatley, Phillis (c.1753–1784)
Date: 1773
"Think'st thou, had Fancy's mirror struck his sight, / And brought thy too degenerate deeds to light; / Had shewn thee curst to such a vicious race, / Whose very breath contaminates the place: / How would his manly heart with grief have died / T'have seen this fatal barrier to his pride?"
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: 1775
"Of vulgar minds why nature shuns the praise, / And why to yours her every charm displays; / Whether the happy strokes of beauty shine / On fancy's mirror, or in HOGARTH's line; / Whether to habit, mode, or place confin'd, / Or fixt a general truth in every mind; / Discussions these will wing our...
preview | full record— Shepherd, Richard (1731/2-1809)
Date: 1775
"Before the queen an oval mirror stands, / The curious labor of her active hands; / Ample its size; of wondrous texture wrought; / With pow'r endu'd, surpassing human thought."
preview | full record— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)
Date: 1775
"On this deceptive mirror FANCY gaz'd; / For in its field she saw whate'er she pleas'd: / Whate'er in thought her fertile brain design'd, / (The varying labours of her changeful mind,) / Whate'er she wills, within its orb she spies, / True to her wish the airy visions rise."
preview | full record— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)
Date: 1778
"Renown'd ARCADIA, fam'd by Grecian bards, / In fancy's mirror strikes th' enraptur'd eye; / The pastures green replete with lowing herds, / Where brousing flocks, and careless shepherds lie."
preview | full record— Graham, Charles (1750 ca.-1796 fl.)
Date: 1780
"Thy simple diction, free from glaring art, / With sweet allurement steals upon the heart; / Pure as the rill, that Nature's hand refines, / A cloudless mirror of thy soul it shines"
preview | full record— Hayley, William (1745-1820)
Date: 1781
Fancy may never "view a shape of lovelier kind / In the bright mirror of her Shakespeare's mind."
preview | full record— Hayley, William (1745-1820)