Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789

"Oh! I'm sick to the soul, to see Music alone, / Stretch her negligent length on the Drama's gay throne; / Where Muses more honor'd by Wisdom should sit, / To adorn the heart's mirror, and fashion our wit"

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)

Date: 1789

"Immortal Blooms! surpassing Eden's kind, / Where Beauty shines the mirror of the Mind, / And rises fairer from the waste of Time, / To sky-born Lusture in the Heav'nly Clime."

— Colvill, Robert (d. 1788)

Date: 1789

"Thro' thy [Fancy's] false medium then, no longer view'd, / May fancied pain and fancied pleasure fly, / And I, as from me all thy dreams depart, / Be to my wayward destiny subdu'd."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: w. 1789, 1804

"Heav'n's pure Word would prompt Affection win, / And purge the Soul from all polluting Sin; / Till, like a faithful mirror Man would shine, / By Wisdom polish'd, and by Grace, divine."

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)

Date: 1790

Pleasing scenes may remain in the bosom, like "moons who do their watches run with the reflected brightness of the sun"

— Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851)

Date: 1790

"A shadowy sequestered dell appeared buried deep among the rocks, and in the bottom was seen a lake, whose clear bosom reflected the impending cliffs, and the beautiful luxuriance of the overhanging shades."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1790

"Or novelty, fair pleasure's youthful queen, / Gives fresh allurements to each splendid scene, / To these, in fancy's varying mirror shown, / Amusement charms with beauties not its own."

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

Date: 1790

"And o'er Imagination's gloomy glass, / Despair's mute sons like Banquo's visions pass"

— Merry, Robert (1755-1798)

Date: 1790

"The ruling passion of Mrs. Melbourne's soul was her love of her daughter; but it was carried to an excess that rendered it illiberal and selfish: her mind resembled a convex glass, and every ray of affection in her bosom was concentered in one small point."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1790

"Her mind resembled an empty mirror, which has no character, no images of its own, borrows every impression from some passing object, and, if left to itself, would for ever remain vacant."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)