Date: w. 1677, 1702

"Vain wandring Thoughts, that crowd within my Breast / Do oft obstruct my Soul from Solid Rest; / like to vagrant Clouds, obscure the Mind / Which should to serious watching be inclin'd."

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: 1703, 1718

Light may fly back to Heaven and leave one's breast bereft of its "Celestial Guest"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712, 1796

"Her body delicate, wherein enshrin'd, / As in its temple, dwelt a virtuous mind."

— Ellwood, Thomas (1639-1713)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the secret Soul's imperial Throne / Surrounded with thick Darkness, like thy own, / Where she to all the Senses Audience gives, / Appoints their Tasks, their Messages receives, / And passes Judgement in her Sov'reign Court / On every Envoy's true or false Report / How her sole Nod...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"The Cells, and little Lodgings, Thou canst see / In Mem'ry's Hoards and secret Treasury; / Dost the dark Cave of each Idea spy, / And see'st how rang'd the crouded Lodgers lye; / How some, when beckon'd by the Soul, awake, / While peaceful Rest their uncall'd Neighbours take."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"And now his Spirits by the Impulse move / Of the new Guest [Love], while soft unpractis'd Pains / Throb in his Breast and thrill along his Veins."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1744

"The witnesses are heard; the cause is o'er; / Let Conscience file the sentence in her court, / Dearer than deeds that half a realm convey."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: September 27, 1746

"A jealous daemon whispers in my breast."

— Hervey, John, second Baron Hervey of Ickworth (1696-1743)

Date: 1762-3

"(Good Gravity! forbear thy spleen, / When I say wit, I wisdom mean) / Where, (such the practice of the court, / Which legal precedents support) / Not one idea is allow'd / To pass unquestion'd in the crowd, / But ere it can obtain the grace / Of holding in the brain a place, / Before the chief i...

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1783

"Learn hence, that husbands will be blind / To every beauty but the mind; / Great Venus there should hold her court; / should the Loves and Graces sport / There rapture beam'd in every feature, / Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)