Date: 1779, 1781

"The man that sits down to suppose himself charged with treason or peculation, and heats his mind to an elaborate purgation of his character from crimes which he was never within the possibility of committing, differs only by the infrequency of his folly from him who praises beauty which he never...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"His strength always appears in his agility; his volatility is not the flutter of a light, but the bound of an elastick mind."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"The heat of Milton's mind might be said to sublimate his learning, to throw off into his work the spirit of science, unmingled with its grosser parts."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"An accumulation of knowledge impregnated his mind, fermented by study and exalted by imagination."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1780, 1781, 1788

"Two passions there by soft contention please, / The love of martial Fame, and learned Ease: / These friendly colours, exquisitely join'd, / Form the enchanting picture of thy mind."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1780

"Thy mind expanded to her empire's bound; / There every Science a firm station found."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1780

"But O! how rare benignant Virtue springs / In the blank bosom of despotic kings!"

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1780

"My Potter stamp on me thy clay, Thy only stamp of love!"

— Wesley, John (1703-1791)

Date: 1781

"[A]ll you've said / Seems to wear Reason's stamp."

— Keate, George (1729-1797)

Date: 1781, 1791

"Could I thus stamp with guilt, sensations sprung / From thought most delicate"?

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)