Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Hitherto the stores, / Which feed thy mind and exercise her powers, / Partake the relish of their native soil, / Their parent earth."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1745

"Soon as his Breast receiv'd the potent Ray, / Whate'er possest it, instantly gave way; / As in the Wood before the Lightning's Beam, / Perish the Leaves, and the whole Tree is Flame."

— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)

Date: 1746, 1753

"So, from injected thought, shoots passion's growth; / No sprout spontaneous, no chance child, of sloth: / Idea lends it root-- firm, on touch'd minds, / Fancy, (swift planter!) first, th' impression binds; / Shap'd in conception's mould, nature's prompt skill / Bids subject nerves obey th' inspi...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Mourn it, ye sons of spleen, whose hands (mistaught) / Tore up this seed of sense, this plant of thought / Whence reasoning shoots might bloom life's garden o'er, And weedy wildness choak her walks no more."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1751, 1791

"Now take a Simile at Hand, / Compare the mental Soil to Land."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: February 1755

"See yon delicious woodbines rise / By oaks exalted to the skies, / So view in Harriot's matchless mind / Humility and greatness join'd."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1758, 1781

"'Tis hence the sev'ral Passions take their Rise, / The Seeds of Virtue, and the Roots of Vice; / Hence Notes peculiar or to Young, or Old, / Phlegmatic, sanguine, amorous, or cold!"

— Hawkins, William (1721-1801)

Date: 1764

"Like such a garden, when the human soul, / Uncultured, wild, impatient of control, / Brings forth those passions of luxuriant race, /Which spread, and stifle every herb of grace

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

Virtue may wither on the bed she was born until Philosophy steps in and "clears the encumbered land" and "roots up every weed"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1765

"Reason in the bosom pours, / Its growth improves, its fruit matures, / Each counsel of the human brain / Weighs in his scale, and stamps it vain?"

— Merrick, James (1720-1769)