Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit, like the French, performs before it thinks, / And thoughtful Sense without Performance sinks."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1702

"Love join'd their Souls, and Heav'n seal'd each Heart"

— Sedley, Sir Charles (1639-1701)

Date: 1703

"Distorted Nature shakes at the Controul, / With strong Convulsions rends my strugling Soul; / Each vital String cracks with th' unequal Strife, / Departing Love racks like departing Life; / Yet there the Sorrow ceases with the Breath, / But Love each day renews th' torturing scene of Death."

— Egerton [née Fyge; other married name Field], Sarah (1670-1723)

Date: 1703

"The true, substantial Wealth is lodg'd within; / 'Tis there the brightest Gems are found: / Such as wou'd great and glorious Treasures win, Treasures which theirs for ever will remain, / Must Piety and Wisdom strive to gain."

— Chudleigh [née Lee], Mary, Lady Chudleigh (bap. 1656, d. 1710)

Date: 1705

"The deadly Bullet thro' his Forehead past, / An Inch above the Eye-brows, and effac'd / The Haunts and Tracks of Learning in the Brain,"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1705

"Their Medly Temper, their amphibious Mind / Is fraught with Principles of every kind; / Nor ever can from Stain and Error free,/ Assert its Native Truth, and Energy."

— Shippen, William (bap. 1673, d. 1743)

Date: 1706, 1709

"In vain the Harlot Pleasure spreads her Charms / To lull his Thoughts in Luxuries fair Lap / To sensual Ease, (the Bane of little Kings, / Monarchs whose waxen Images of Souls / Are moulded into Softness) still his Mind / Wears its own Shape."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1708

"As if his hollow Skull had been / A Hive fill'd full of Bees within" who "To Wax and Honey turn'd his Brains; / For the long Speech he did transmit, / Was sometimes hard, and sometimes sweet"

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: 1711

"While Passions in their Breasts ungovern'd rage, / Distract the Mind, and War intestine wage, / Reason divine from her high Throne descends, / Lays by her Scepter, and her Pow'r suspends."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"The scorcht and pathless Desarts of the Brain, / Want proper Caves and Cells to entertain / A Crowd of airy Forms and long Ideal Train."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)