Date: 1730

"No light the darkness of that mind invades, / Where Chaos rules, enshrin'd in genuine Shades;"

— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)

Date: 1730

"No light the darkness of that mind invades, / Where Chaos rules, enshrin'd in genuine Shades; / Where, in the Dungeon of the Soul inclos'd,/ True Dulness nods, reclining and repos'd.

— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)

Date: 1730

A "mimic gleam of transient light" may break through the gloom of dullness "and then they think they write"

— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)

Date: 1745

"But thou whose eye, from passion's film refin'd, / Can see true greatness in an honest mind."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1745

"Like mighty rivers, with resistless force / The passions rage, obstructed in their course; / Swell to new heights, forbidden paths explore, / And drown those virtues which they fed before."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1745

"But SATIRE's arrow searches ev'ry breast: / She plays a ruling passion on the rest"

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1745

"Lo! Shaftsb'ry rears her [Satire] high on reason's throne, / And loads the slave with honours not her own."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1745

"Let clear-ey'd reason at the helm preside, / Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide: / Then mirth may urge when reason can explore, / This point the way, that waft us to the shore."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1745

"A race fantastick, in whose page you see / Untutor'd fancy, a meer Jeu d'Esprit: / Wit's shatter'd mirror lies in fragments bright, / Reflects not nature, but confounds the sight."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)