Date: 1741

"He knew, that vain was ev'ry Art, design'd / To check the Freedom of the humane Will; / That Restraints could shackle up the Mind, / Which, self-determin'd, kept her Empire still."

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)

Date: 1741

"His weary Soul, from earthly Bondage freed, / Nor fled to Heav'n, where Some say Spirits fly; / Nor vanish'd into Air, as Others plead; / Nor chang'd into a Star adorn'd the Sky; / Nor sought direct (a solitary Shade!) / In Pluto's gloomy Realm, Eternal Rest: / But thro' Traduction, (as his Moth...

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)

Date: 1753

"By steel may bodies be confin'd, / But love, my Orra, chains the mind."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1760

"There is a certain pleasing force that binds, / Faster than chains do slaves, two willing minds."

— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)

Date: 1761

"To one genius it is necessary to give wings, and to another shackles; one should be spurred forward, another reined in; one should be encouraged, another intimidated; sometimes it should be checked, and at others assisted."

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778); Kenrick, William (1729/30-1779)

Date: 1765

"Thy way, by grace so well begun, / I shall have farther strength to run / Until I reach the goal; / When, Jesus, from this low degree, / And bondage of mortality, / Thou hast enlarged my soul."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1765

"Lord, from this despondence rousing, / For the glory of thy name, / And my righteous cause espousing, / Bring my soul from bonds and shame."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1788-89

"The former [Platonic philosophy] fills the soul with intelligible light, breaks her lethargic fetters, and elevates her to the principle of things; the latter [Lockean philosophy] clouds the intellectual eye of the soul, by increasing her oblivion, strengthens her corporeal bands, and hurries he...

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1789

"Here lies her bracelet of flowers, exquisitely perfumed by the root of síura which had been spread on her bosom: it has fallen from her delicate wrist, and is become a new chain for my heart."

— Jones, Sir William (1746-1794)

Date: 1792

"Curs'd lethargy of the soul! ... that chain'd my better judgement, cramp'd all my strength of mind--ruin'd all my prospects."

— Tytler, Alexander Fraser (1747-1813); Schiller (1759-1805)