Date: 1759
"They are upon these occasions commonly cited as the ultimate foundations of what is just and unjust in human conduct; and this circumstance seems to have misled several very eminent authors, to draw up their systems in such a manner, as if they had supposed that the original judgments of mankind...
preview | full record— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
Date: 1759
"Mark well the Passion, that most rules his Heart, / By courting that, you may rule him with Art; / You may his ruling Passion govern so, / 'Twill be your constant Friend, instead of Foe."
preview | full record— Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)
Date: 1760-7
"Could no such thing as favour and affection enter this sacred Court [of Conscience]:--Did Wit disdain to take a bribe in it;--or was asham'd to shew its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment?"
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: April 1761
"What the grave triflers on this busy scene, / When they make use of this word Reason, mean, / I know not; but according to my plan, / 'Tis Lord Chief-Justice in the court of man"
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762-3
The five senses may "Allow [Reason] to retain the name / Of Royalty, and, as in sport, / To hold a mimic formal court, / Permitted (no uncommon thing) / To be a kind of puppet-king, / And suffer'd, by the way of toy, / To hold a globe, but not employ"
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762-3
"With these grave fops, whose system seems / To give up certainty for dreams / The eye of man is understood / As for no other purpose good / Than as a door, through which, of course, / Their passage crowding objects force; / A downright usher, to admit / New-comers to the court of Wit."
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
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...
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762
"I'm speaking of thy mind alone; / Where keen reproaches all resort, / Where biting scandal holds her court; / From whence she throws her pois'nous dart / At ev'ry unprovoking heart."
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762
"The unbridled Athamand, his sister's son, / In firm alliance with a noble princess, / Whom Persia's court had destin'd to his love, / (His tyrant passions brooking no controul,) / Demanded Zobeide as despotic master."
preview | full record— Cradock, Joseph (1742-1826)