Date: 1719
"I was not so much surpriz'd with the Lightning, as I was with a Thought which darted into my Mind as swift as the Lightning it self: O my Powder!"
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1720
"His Fancy still awake; the roving Guest / Usurps the Throne of Reason in his Breast: / Forms great Ideas, and religious Schemes, / A busy mime, and floats in golden Dreams."
preview | full record— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)
Date: First performed February 17, 1720.
"My vital Flame / There, like a Taper on the holy Altar, / Shall waste away; till Heav'n relenting hear / Incessant Pray'rs for thee and for my self, / And wing my Soul to meet with thine in Bliss."
preview | full record— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)
Date: 1723
"Can'st say what diff'rent Turns the Spirits take, / When they of diff'rent Kinds Impressions make; / What vital Springs those Spirits in their Flight / Strike to cause Torment, what to give Delight."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1723
"Say, can your Mind to Heav'n direct her Flight / In ardent Anhelations?"
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: February 22, 1723
"Yes, and Cæsar sat / Pensive and silent; in his anxious breast / Perhaps revolving that of all his train, / Who proudly wanton in his mounted rays, / Gay flutt'ring insects of a summer-noon, / How few wou'd bear the wintry storms of fate!"
preview | full record— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)
Date: February 22, 1723
"My lord, recall / Your wandering reason."
preview | full record— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)
Date: 1724
"'Tis impossible to express the anxious Thoughts that rowl'd about in my Mind, and continually perplex'd me about her."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: Friday, January 15, 1725
"I have transplanted this good Custom [of looking back from rising ground while walking], from my Body, into my Mind; which I have, for some Years past, inur'd to make Pauses, now and then, in Life; and reckon over its past Stages, and the Uses I have adapted them to: And This I sometimes do, aft...
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1726, 1753
"Love is a passion, by no rules confin'd, / The great first mover of the human mind"
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)