Date: 1765

"Lord, from this despondence rousing, / For the glory of thy name, / And my righteous cause espousing, / Bring my soul from bonds and shame."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1766

"Fancy leads the fetter'd senses / Captives to her fond controul; / Merit may have rich pretences, / But 'tis Fancy fires the soul."

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1766

"Far beyond the bonds of meaning / Fancy flies, a Fairy queen!"

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1766

Earthly pleasures are "Not meant by heav'n to perish unenjoy'd, / Or pass'd with scorn by superstitious pride; / Nor, grov'ling here, the brutal soul to chain, / Where happiness is still alloy'd with pain; / But there the soaring intellect to fix, / Where pain or sorrow ne'er with transport mix."

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)

Date: 1767

"Yet, to the stoic apathy estrang'd, / Thou canst, with steady courage, probe to th' quick / The wound thou mean'st to cure; thou canst reprove / With all the sweet persuasion of esteem: / And give a momentary pang, to free / The worthy mind from its ignoble chain."

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Date: w. prior to April 1770; 1785, 1837, 1875

"Not yet contented with his boundless sway, / Which all perforce must outwardly obey, / He thought to throw his chain upon the mind; / Nor would he leave conjecture unconfined."

— Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770)

Date: 1772

"My Brain's disturb'd; alas! alas! I rave; / What can I do? a poor forsaken Slave! / Like Birds, that spend their little idle Rage, / And, fruitless, mourn, indignant of their Cage, / From Thought to Thought, my fluttering Spirits rove, / Betray'd to Bondage, and, ah! lost to Love."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811) [Editor]

Date: 1774

"Oh! what is liberty regain'd, / When endless chains the mind controul?"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1775

"Such was the Wreath, when HYMEN led / Our MONARCH to his nuptial bed; / And such the tender Chain which binds, / In mutual Love, their wedded Minds."

— Nugent, Robert [or Craggs] (1702-1788)

Date: 1777

"Is there no Senator, whose soul disdains / To bear about his mind the golden chains / Of base Corruption?"

— Combe, William (1742 -1823)