Date: 1796

"What an abominable thing is reading? by this means, the mind is put into a hot-house and forced like a pineapple in Europe; and then produces bad fruit."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796, 1806

"Ambition!--not that emulative zeal Which wings the tow'ring souls of godlike men! / But bold, oppressive, self-created pow'r, / That, trampling o'er the barrier of the laws, / And scattering wide the tender shoots of pity, / Strikes at the root of reason, and confines / Nature itself in bondage!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1800

"They grow by certain laws, like the tree's fruit-- / No juggling chance can metamorphose them. / Have I the human kernel first examined? / Then I know, too, the future will and action."

— Schiller, Friedrich (1759-1805)