Date: 1787

"This was a ray of intelligence which pointed out to the discerning parent the path prescribed by nature."

— Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Ésclavelles Épinay (marquise d') (1726-1783)

Date: 1788

"Since there is no convexity in MIND, / Why are thy genial beams to parts confined?"

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

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."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

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."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1788

"In moments of solitary sadness, a gleam of joy would dart across her mind."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1788

"A ray of fire seemed to flash across the imagination of Delamere, and to inflame all his hopes."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Frequently, your coldness, your unkindness, gives me again to despondence and every lovely prospect I had suffered my imagination to draw is lost in clouds and darkness.'

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"'Tis ever Nature's gen'rous view; / Great minds should noble ends pursue; / As the clear sun-beam, when most bright, / Warms, in proportion to its light."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1788

"Ye! who can selfish cares forego, / To pity those which others know; / As Light, that from its centre strays, / To glad all Nature with its rays; / Oh! ease the pangs ye stoop to share, / And rescue millions from despair!"

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1790

"It is the province of the familiar, to diffuse chearfulness and ease--to open the heart of man to man, and to beam a temperate sunshine upon the mind."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)