Date: 1723

"Can'st say what diff'rent Turns the Spirits take, / When they of diff'rent Kinds Impressions make; / What vital Springs those Spirits in their Flight / Strike to cause Torment, what to give Delight."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the secret Soul's imperial Throne / Surrounded with thick Darkness, like thy own, / Where she to all the Senses Audience gives, / Appoints their Tasks, their Messages receives, / And passes Judgement in her Sov'reign Court / On every Envoy's true or false Report / How her sole Nod...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou [God] only can'st the wond'rous Links descry / That Minds unbody'd to a Body tye."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou see'st from whence her Colours Fancy takes, / Of what Materials she her Pencil makes / By which she paints her Scenes with such Applause, / And in the Brain ten thousand Landskips draws."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"The Cells, and little Lodgings, Thou canst see / In Mem'ry's Hoards and secret Treasury; / Dost the dark Cave of each Idea spy, / And see'st how rang'd the crouded Lodgers lye; / How some, when beckon'd by the Soul, awake, / While peaceful Rest their uncall'd Neighbours take."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the downy Chains that softly bind / Our slumb'ring Sense, when waiting Objects find / No Avenue left open to the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Enormous Bacchanalian Pleasures, loose / Milesian Feasts and Luxury in Use / Among abandon'd Sibarites, were dear / To all the Natives sunk in Riot here, / As they to brutal Instincts had resign'd / Celestial Reason's Empire of the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Kings of the Empire of the Soul possest, / Who sit enthron'd secure in every Breast / In Civil Strength, and Glory will encrease, / And triumph mid'st the Joys of lasting Peace."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Vice had usurp'd the Empire of his Soul."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"[C]an Arms o'er Reason Conquests win, / And triumph o'er the awful Judge within?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)