Date: 1747-8

"A man who is gross in a woman's company ought to be knocked down with a club: for, like so many musical instruments, touch but a single wire, and the dear souls are sensible all over "

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1748

"But how will this dismantled soul appear, / When stripped of all it lately held so dear, / Forced from its prison of expiring clay, / Afraid and shivering at the doubtful way?"

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

Date: 1748

"In Soto's bosom you may find / The glimmering of a worthy mind: / 'Tis but a faint and feeble ray, / Imperfect as the dawning day."

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

Date: 1748

"Yet were the jarring passions tuned, / The soil from thorns and thistles clear, / Some latent virtue might appear."

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

Date: 1748

The sorrowing soul is tempestuous

— Pilkington, Laetitia (c. 1709-1750)

Date: 1748

The passions may be at war

— Pilkington, Laetitia (c. 1709-1750)

Date: 1748

The body is a "frail building falling to decay"

— Pilkington, Laetitia (c. 1709-1750)

Date: 1748

"But how will this dismantled soul appear,/ When stripped of all it lately held so dear,/ Forced from its prison of expiring clay, / Afraid and shivering at the doubtful way?"

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

Date: 1748

"[B]ut now that I looked upon myself as a murderer, it is impossible to express the terrors of my imagination, which was incessantly haunted by the image of the deceased, and my bosom stung with the most exquisite agonies, of which I saw no end."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1748

"[A]nd in the mean time went to dress, with an intention of visiting Mrs. Snapper and Miss, whom I had utterly neglected and indeed almost forgot, since my dear Narcissa had resumed the empire of my soul."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)