Date: 1743

"Th'all-rev'renc'd Leader call'd a wily Mind, [...] Now, stript and naked, skimm'd th'eternal Space, / Anxious for Office, and in Wait, for Place."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Then the inexpressive strain / Diffuses its inchantment: fancy dreams / Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves, / And vales of bliss: the intellectual power / Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear, / And smiles: the passions, gently sooth'd away, / Sink to divine repose, and love and joy /...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1762, 1781

"Bear back, false Winchester, thy proffer'd Bliss, / Weigh Crowns and Kingdoms with a deed like this, / Far, far too light in Wisdom's eye they seem, / Nor shake the scale, while Reason holds the beam."

— Keate, George (1729-1797)

Date: 1763, 1770

"Yes, doubtless, steel'd--but still he show'd a heart, / As soft, as Cleopatra's softest part."

— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)

Date: 1770

"Excursive thought" may "Stand still a moment, and by reason taught / Judge rightly, with strict eye thyself survey"

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)

Date: 1802

"Blest mirror! which can thus, with magic pow'r, / Give the rank weed the fragrance of the flow'r; / And from deformities,--without, within, / Spots in the mind, or specks upon the skin-- / Can all that's good, and all that's fair reflect, / And change to beauty, every dark defect."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1814, 1816, 1896

"How then should matron Mind, with filial fear, / Judge all the embryo thoughts engender'd there"

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)

Date: 1823

The "venom'd shafts" of Cupid "empoison mortal joy," "Drawing from heav'n the soul of man to earth, / With foul alloy debasing purest treasure."

— Burges, Sir James Bland (1752-1824)