Date: 1748, 1749

"And where is the wonder that the body when in health should be subservient, for how can it resist that torrent of blood, and all those spirits which are ready to force obedience, the will having for its ministers an invisible army of fluids, always ready to receive its orders, and as quick as li...

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1749

"Yet should thy Soul indulge the gen'rous Heat, / Till captive Science yields her last Retreat / Should Reason guide thee with her brightest Ray, / And pour on misty Doubt resistless Day; / Should no false Kindness lure to loose Delight, / Nor Praise relax, nor Difficulty fright; / Should temptin...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1749

"His clouded Soul now darts no dazling Ray, / And faintly warms the animated Clay: / Not Rome's sad Ruins such Impressions leave, / As Reason bury'd in the Body's Grave:"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)

Date: 1750

Vain doubts and groundless fears tear the foolish bosom and preced the "rising storm"

— Eusden, Laurence (1688-1730)

Date: Tuesday, April 24, 1750

"Those sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence must shew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his po...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, September 22, 1750

"The thoughts that entered my soul were too strong to be diverted, and too piercing to be endured; but such violence cannot be lasting, the storm subsided in a short time, I wept, retired, and grew calm."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751

One may be "tost about at the pleasure of every wind" and"hurried thro' the ocean of life, just as each each predominant passion direction

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1751

On waking one may feel "A darksome mist, which rises from my mind, /And, like sweet sun-shine, leaves your name behind"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1751, 1777

"Tempests were not alone removed from nature; but those more furious tempests were unknown to human breasts, which now cause such uproar, and engender such confusion."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"There seems here a necessity for confessing that the happiness and misery of others are not spectacles entirely indifferent to us; but that the view of the former, whether in its causes or effects, like sun-shine or the prospect of well-cultivated plains, (to carry our pretensions no higher), co...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)