Date: 1793

"To solace mental fatigue by the amusements of fancy, is no loss of time. Students know how often the eye is busied in wandering over the page, while the mind lies in torpid inactivity; they therefore compute their time, not by the hours consumed in study, but by the real acquisitions they obtain...

— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)

Date: 1794

"At the same time that our young performer continues to play with great exactness this accustomed tune, she can bend her mind, and that intensely, on some other object, according with the fourth article of the preceding propositions."

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: 1794

"I shuddered at the possibility of his having overheard the words of my soliloquy. But this idea, alarming as it was, had not the power immediately to suspend the career of my reflections"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1796

"He thought of his union with Antonia; he thought of the obstacles which might oppose his wishes; and a thousand changing visions floated before his fancy, sad 'tis true, but not unpleasing."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"As this last idea passed through his imagination, a blush spread itself over his cheek."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"At that moment a thousand confused ideas passed before my imagination."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"The robbers who infested the wood, Marguerite's exclamation respecting her children, the arms and appearance of the two young men, and the various anecdotes which I had heard related respecting the secret correspondence which frequently exists between banditti and postillions; all these circumst...

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"She was then too young to regret the pleasures of which her profession deprived her: but no sooner did her warm and voluptuous character begin to be developed, than she abandoned herself freely to the impulse of her passions, and seized the first opportunity to procure their gratification."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"He strove to pray: his bosom no longer glowed with devotion: his thoughts insensibly wandered to Matilda's secret charms."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"He related her adventure; and he added, that since that time his ideas having undergone a thorough revolution, he now felt much compassion for the unfortunate nun."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)