Date: 1712

"When threat'ning Tides of Rage and Anger rise, / Usurp the Throne, and Reason's Sway despise, / When in the Seats of Life this Tempest reigns, / Beats thro' the Heart, and drives along the Veins, / See, Eloquence with Force perswasive binds / The restless Waves, and charms the warring Winds: Res...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"The Crimson Jets rais'd with Elastic Force / Swift to the Seats of Sense pursue their Course; / Arterial Streams thro' the soft Brain diffuse, / And water all its Fields with vital Dews."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"By Day her Thoughts in never-ceasing Streams / Flow clear, by Night they strive in troubled Dreams."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Is not a sensual Tincture thro' your Mind / Deeply diffus'd, by which 'tis now inclin'd / Not heav'nly, but terrestrial Bliss, to chuse, / Pursue low Pleasures, and sublime refuse!"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1741, 1742, 1755

"Which they explained by a Bottle's being filled with Sea Water, that swimming there a while, on the Bottle's breaking, flowed in again, and mingled with the common Mass."

— Warburton, William (1698-1779)

Date: 1745

"Like mighty rivers, with resistless force / The passions rage, obstructed in their course; / Swell to new heights, forbidden paths explore, / And drown those virtues which they fed before."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: 1747

Johnson's dictionary may "awaken to the care of purer diction some men of genius, whose attention to argument makes them negligent of style, or whose rapid imagination, like the Peruvian torrents, when it brings down gold, mingles it with sand."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, July 28, 1750

"Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; an eagerness for increase of possessions deluges the soul, and we sink into the gulphs of insatiability, only because we do not sufficiently consider, that all real need is very soon supplied, and all real danger of its invasion easily precluded."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, September 15, 1750

"The attention is dissipated by variety, and acts more weakly upon any single part, as that torrent may be drawn off to different channels, which, pouring down in one collected body, cannot be resisted."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, September 29, 1750

"Nor is it necessary, that, to feel this uneasiness, the mind should be extended to any great diffusion of generosity, or melted by uncommon warmth of benevolence; for that prudence which the world teaches, and a quick sensibility of private interest, will direct us to shun needless enmities; sin...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)