Date: 1717

"This Soil, in early Youth improv'd with Care, / The Seeds of gentle Science best will bear"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1718

"Knowledge Divine they by degrees bestow'd, / And with blest Seed your Heart industrious sow'd, / Whence verdant Issues soon began to shoot; / A Bloom ensu'd, that promis'd generous Fruit."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Drawn by their Pray'r, from Heav'n descending Dews / Cheer the fair Plant, and Heat Divine infuse: / While watchful they destroy'd the springing Weeds, / Baneful to Virtue, which our Bosom breeds, / Nature's spontaneous Growth, that no Assistant needs."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"A Blow of Virtues, all of heav'nly Kind, / Mingled their Beauties, and adorn'd your Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"You from your Breast must root Religion's Weed, / Not only sin, but disbelieve your Creed."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"May not this cheering Breath, this soothing Air, / Nourish too fast Vain-Glory's secret Root, / And make its rank pernicious Branches shoot, / Till on your Mind they baneful Blossoms spread, / And drop malignant Dews on Virtue's tender Head?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1720

"Choice flow'rs of Grace within thy Soul doth spring, / Zion's beautious Birds their chearfull Notes do sing; / The charming Voice of the dear Turtle's heard, / And ev'ry rav'nous Bird hath disappear'd."

— Pennecuik, Alexander (d. 1730)

Date: 1722

"Zeno, and his scholars the Stoicks, took an odd fancy, that the passions were not interwoven with the constitution of man, and so were no part of his nature, but the blemishes and vicious excrescencies of the soul, and therefore ought to be entirely cut off; noxious weeds, that poison'd the mind...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1724, 1755

The mind is a soil that must be cultivated; left fallow "an hateful crop succeeds"

— Tollet, Elizabeth (1694-1754)

Date: 1726, 1775

"Thro' ev'ry tender tube they rove, / In finer spirits strike the brain; / Wind quick thro' ev'ry fibrous grove, / And seek, thro' pores, the heart again."

— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)