Date: 1667
"We stifle our own Sun, and live in Shade; / But where its beams do once appear, / They make that person of himself afraid, / And to his own acts most severe."
preview | full record— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)
Date: 1686
"Change did I say, that word I must forbear, / No, she bright Star wont wander from her sphere / Of Virtue (in which Female Souls do move) / Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love."
preview | full record— Egerton [née Fyge; other married name Field], Sarah (1670-1723)
Date: 1688
"I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun."
preview | full record— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)
Date: 1700
"Affliction, the sincerest Friend, the frankest Monitor, the best Instructer and indeed the only useful School that Women are ever put to, rouses her understanding, opens her Eyes, fixes her Attention, and diffuses such a Light, such a Joy into her Mind, as not only Informs her better, but Entert...
preview | full record— Astell, Mary (1666–1731)
Date: 1700
"She will discern a time when her Sex shall be no bar to the best Employments, the highest Honor; a time when that distinction, now so much us'd to her Prejudice, shall be no more, but provided she is not wanting to her self, her Soul shall shine as bright as the greatest Heroe's."
preview | full record— Astell, Mary (1666–1731)