Date: 1765
"And in this I am warranted by the example of ancient Rome; where, as Cicero informs us, the very boys were obliged to learn the twelve tables by heart, as a carmen necessarium or indispensable lesson, to imprint on their tender minds an early knowledge of the laws and constitution of their count...
preview | full record— Blackstone, William (1723-1780)
Date: 1766
"Curse not the king, yea, no not in thy thought, / Nor in thy closet curse the rich for ought"
preview | full record— Nicol, Alexander (bap. 1703)
Date: 1768
"This Winged Boy a gentle mind did bear, / As gentle as the beast [a lamb] which him up-bore, / Ne could he see th'unhappy drop a tear / But it would make his breast with pity sore, / And he himself would weep and grieve therefore."
preview | full record— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)
Date: 1769
"But conscious that a mind by virtue steel'd, / To no impression of distress will yield."
preview | full record— Wilkie, William (1721-1772)
Date: 1774-1776, 1788, 1803
"From a stranger hand / Ah, what can infancy expect, when she / Whose essence was inwove with thine, whose life, / Whose soul thou didst participate, neglects / Herself in thee, and breaks the strongest seal / Which nature stamp'd in vain upon her heart"
preview | full record— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)
Date: 1774-1776, 1788, 1803
"Well-skill'd / To form the growing soul, and on its young / And opening bud to fix the impression deep / Of every generous thought"
preview | full record— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)
Date: 1777
"I'd hangings weave, in fancy's loom / For Lady Norton's dressing room."
preview | full record— Mason, William (1725-1797)
Date: 1772-1781, 1781
"But, if thy faint springs / Refuse this large supply, steel thy firm soul / With stoic pride"
preview | full record— Mason, William (1725-1797)
Date: 1784
"Thy piercing thought / Unaided saw each movement of the mind, / As skilful artists view the small machine, / The secret springs and nice dependencies, / And to thy mimic scenes, by fancy wrought / To such a wond'rous shape, th'impassion'd breast / In floods of grief, or peals of laughter bow'd, ...
preview | full record— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)
Date: 1787
"But when by various wrongs your bosom's steel'd, / Your groaning country calling to the field, / And 'twixt the foe and you the uncertain scale / Of fight must shew whose fortune shall prevail"
preview | full record— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)