Date: 1763
"I could have resisted her beauty only, but the mind which irradiates those speaking eyes"
preview | full record— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)
Date: 1776
"Nothing is so swift as thought; a ray of recollection beamed upon my mind, and brought back to my remembrance the once smiling countenance of Nancy Weston, whose father had been one of the under masters at Winchester, at whose house I boarded, when I was placed at college there."
preview | full record— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)
Date: 1777
"Col. Dormer, though he knew the human heart, had never yet thought of taking his nieces in more active scenes of life: he had fallen into the common mistake of people past the meridian of their days, who, feeling tranquillity their greatest good, do not sufficiently reflect that it is insipid at...
preview | full record— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)
Date: 1778, 1779
"As soon would I discuss the effect of sound with the deaf, or the nature of colours with the blind, as aim at illuminating with conviction a mind so warped by prejudice, so much the slave of unruly and illiberal passions."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1778, 1779
"Once, indeed, I thought there existed another,--who, when time had wintered o'er his locks, would have shone forth among his fellow-creatures, with the same brightness of worth which dignifies my honoured Mr. Villars; a brightness, how superior in value to that which results from mere quickness ...
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1777, 1780
"While he prayed, he felt an enlargement of heart beyond what he had ever experienced before; all idle fears were dispersed, and his heart glowed with divine love and affiance: He seemed raised above the world and all its pursuits."
preview | full record— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)
Date: 1782
"What Addison has said of the Ways of Heaven, may with much more propriety & accuracy be applied to the the 'Mind of Man which indeed, is Dark & Intricate, Filled with wild Mazes, & perplexed with Error.''"
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1782
"Is all over? no ray of reason left? no knowledge of thy wretched Delvile?"
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1787
"This was a ray of intelligence which pointed out to the discerning parent the path prescribed by nature."
preview | full record— Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Ésclavelles Épinay (marquise d') (1726-1783)
Date: 1788
"She could not write any more; she wished herself far distant from all human society; a thick gloom spread itself over her mind: but did not make her forget the very beings she wished to fly from."
preview | full record— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)