Date: 1785

Virtue is like a "lowly creeping, modest and yet fair" plant that thrives most "where little seen"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

Man in society is like a flower: "'Tis there alone / His faculties expanded in full bloom/ Shine out"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1788

"For they have keen affections, kind desires, / Love strong as death, and active patriot fires; / All the rude energy, the fervid flame, / Of high-souled passions, and ingenuous shame: / Strong but luxuriant virtues boldly shoot / From the wild vigour of a savage root."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1788

"Or, if where savage habit steels / The vulgar mind, one bosom feels / The sacred claim of helpless woe-- / If Pity in that soil can grow; / Pity! whose tender impulse darts / With keenest force on nobler hearts; / As flames that purest essence boast, / Rise highest when they tremble most."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1788

"Ah, not alone of power possest / To check each virtue of the breast; / As when the numbing frosts arise / The charm of vegetation dies."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1810

"And these young ruffians in the soul will sow / Seeds of all vices that on weakness grow."

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1814

A "ripening mind" may be "fitted for a throne"

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)

Date: 1817

"'--O let not Sloth depress to earth / 'Those early blossoms in their birth, / 'Which to your ripening mind is given, / 'To bloom through time, then rise to heaven!"

— Combe, William (1742 -1823)

Date: 1817

With "attentive hand" the "Luxuriance" of one's nature may be pruned so that branches will bear fruit

— Combe, William (1742 -1823)

Date: 1817

"The seeds, in earliest Childhood sown / As buds, will in the Boy be known: / In Youth, as blossoms will appear, / And in full Manhood, fruitage bear."

— Combe, William (1742 -1823)