Date: 1745
"'I am too noble, and of too high a birth,' saith that excellent moralist, 'to be a slave to my body; which I look upon only as a chain thrown upon the liberty of my soul.'"
preview | full record— Mason, John (1706-1763)
Date: 1747-8
"To send a man and horse on purpose; as I did! My imagination chained to the belly of the beast, in order to keep pace with him!"
preview | full record— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 1750
"He saw that, instead of conquering their fears, the endeavour of his gay friends was only to escape them; but his philosophy chained his mind to its object, and rather loaded him with shackles than furnished him with arms."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 1750
"An habitual sadness seizes upon the soul, and the faculties are chained to a single object, which can never be contemplated but with hopeless uneasiness."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, 13 October 1750
"Those parallel circumstances, and kindred images, to which we readily conform our minds, are, above all other writings, to be found in narratives of the lives of particular persons; and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more deligh...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1751
"And fettering on her Throne th' immortal Mind, / The Guidance of her Realm to Passions wild resign'd."
preview | full record— West, Gilbert (1703-1756)
Date: 1751
"Thus a lively Imagination and unperceived Self-Love, fetter the Heart in certain ideal Bonds of their own creating: Till at length some turbulent and furious Passion arising in its Strength, breaks these fantastic Shackles which Fancy had imposed, and leaps to its Prey like a Tyger chained by Co...
preview | full record— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Date: Saturday, April 6, 1751
"Austerities and mortifications are means by which the mind is invigorated and roused, by which the attractions of pleasure are interrupted, and the chains of sensuality are broken."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, April 13, 1751
"It is therefore not less necessary to happiness than to virtue, that he rid his mind of passions which make him uneasy to himself, and hateful to the world, which enchain his intellects, and obstruct his improvement."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1751
"I proceeded therefore--That I loved Familiar-letter-writing, as I had more than once told her, above all the species of writing: It was writing from the heart (without the fetters prescribed by method or study) as the very word 'Cor-respondence' implied"
preview | full record— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)