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Date: 1789

"Thro' thy [Fancy's] false medium then, no longer view'd, / May fancied pain and fancied pleasure fly, / And I, as from me all thy dreams depart, / Be to my wayward destiny subdu'd."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

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Date: 1790

Pleasing scenes may remain in the bosom, like "moons who do their watches run with the reflected brightness of the sun"

— Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851)

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Date: 1793

"In fancy's mirror dreadful scenes appear, / Design'd by doubt, and magnified by fear, / There some gay female, frivolous and vain, / Artfully forms the captivating chain; / Makes him the slave of passion and caprice, / Perverts his principles, and wounds his peace."

— Burrell [née Raymond, later Clay], Sophia, Lady Burrell (1750-1802)

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Date: 1795

A "ray of sacred light" may dart the mind of the blind

— Cristal, Anne Batten (b. c.1768)

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Date: 1799

Pleasures past "glow sublime" in Memory's "crystal prism" and "Beam on the gloom'd and disappointed Mind"

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

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Date: 1806

"Thy pure flame / Would light the sense opake, and warm the spring / Of boundless ecstacy; while nature's laws / So violated, plead, immortal-tongu'd, / For her dark-fated children; lead them forth / From bondage infamous!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

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Date: 1811

"Her hazle eye, unfix'd and bright, / Dazzles with ever-changing light, / Like flames toss'd by the wind; / Now swimming in quick-passing sadness, / Now laughing in her soul's pure gladness, / The mirror of her mind"

— Mitford, Mary Russell (1787-1855)

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Date: 1811

"To my soul let my friend be a mirror as true, / Thus my faults from all others conceal"

— Tighe, Mary (1772-1810)

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Date: 1814

The Muse may "wave the gloomy Sceptic's ebon wand" and bound "our cloudy view with endless night; / Like Polyphemus with destructive might, / Revenging thus thy loss of mental sight"

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)

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Date: 1814

Patriots of old saw "In the fair mirror of each mighty mind / Each other's worth and talent"

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.