Date: 1765

"And in this I am warranted by the example of ancient Rome; where, as Cicero informs us, the very boys were obliged to learn the twelve tables by heart, as a carmen necessarium or indispensable lesson, to imprint on their tender minds an early knowledge of the laws and constitution of their count...

— Blackstone, William (1723-1780)

Date: 1765, 1770

"When of old / Arcadia's peaceful shepherds uncontroul'd / Their ranging flocks thro' boundless pastures drove, / Or tun'd their pipes beneath the myrtle grove, / Their laws on brazen tablets unimprest / Were deeply grav'd on each ingenuous breast, / No proud Vicegerent of Astrea reign'd, / Astre...

— Wodhull, Michael (1740-1816)

Date: 1766, 1806

"WITH falsehood lurking in thy sordid breast, / And perj'ry's seal upon thy heart imprest, / Dar'st thou, Oh Christian! brave the sounding waves, / The treach'rous whirlwinds, and untrophied graves?"

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

Date: 1770

"These objects banish care, they set us loose / From mean attachments, and compose our souls / For fine impressions, and for heavenly airs:"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1771

"As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination."

— Harris, James (1709-1780)

Date: 1772

"This fable is one of the noblest in all the ancient mythology, and seems to have made a particular impression on the imagination of Milton."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1772

"The poetry of them is often extremely noble; and the mysterious air which prevails in them, together with its delightful impression upon the mind, cannot be better expressed than in that remarkable description with which they inspired the German editor Eschenbach."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1773, 1810

"Must not a being, then, by nature wrought, / To show her power in matter, and in thought, /Each light impression thrilling through his frame, /Inspired by heaven's most sublimated flame;"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1773, 1894-1895

One may learn "her Lesson from within" and "There […] read the Characters imprest / Upon the Mind of ev'ry human Breast,-- / The native Laws prescrib'd to every Soul, / And Love, the One Fulfiller of the Whole."

— Byrom, John (1692-1763)

Date: December 10, 1774; 1775

"That disposition, which is so strong in children, still continues with us, of catching involuntarily the general air, and manner, of those with whom we are most conversant; with this difference only, that a young mind is naturally pliable and imitative; but in a more advanced state it grows rigi...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)