Date: 1796, 1806

"O! blessings on thee!--soft, this ray of hope / Dazzles my aching senses, and I start / As from a dream of horror, where the brain, / Stampt with the semblance of some phantom dire / Reflects it, waking, to the fearful gaze!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1796

"What an abominable thing is reading? by this means, the mind is put into a hot-house and forced like a pineapple in Europe; and then produces bad fruit."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Fy! you are horrid people! we lacerate our bodies; you, your souls.---We believe that the scars on our faces add to our beauty; you consider your vices as ornaments."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Mind and body are both subdued by affliction and chains; their heads are fixed between great wooden forks, supported behind with iron cramps; not one can stir a step without the other; all walk in procession panting under the heavy fork."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Fetters are needless where the affections are rivetted by beneficent actions. Thou hast left me free, and I am thy slave for ever; with my arms in bonds, I could have escaped, but thou fetterest my heart—I will never forsake thee!"

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Come, brother, let thy soul for this once be tuned in unison with ours."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Alas! the door is locked and bolted, as the hearts of white men are."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Alas! there are invisible fetters which no mortal can wrench! both soft and firm are the bonds of virtue, no force can loosen its strong ties, no sword divide it from my soul! it has guided me from childhood to the age of woman, it presided over my marriage, it has attended me in all my wretched...

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"None! You cannot wash my face white, or I his conscience."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796, 1806

"Ambition!--not that emulative zeal Which wings the tow'ring souls of godlike men! / But bold, oppressive, self-created pow'r, / That, trampling o'er the barrier of the laws, / And scattering wide the tender shoots of pity, / Strikes at the root of reason, and confines / Nature itself in bondage!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)