Date: 1712
"The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring succeed) / Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead: / The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep / O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep, / But buzzing Insects make an uncouth Noise, / And sulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies. / So when the Hea...
preview | full record— Cobb, Samuel (1675-1713); Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718); Quillet, Claudius (fl.1640-1656)
Date: Monday, August 24. 1724
"Vast Sea of Ecstacy, that drowns the Mind! / That fierce Transfusion of exchanging Hearts! / That gliding Glimpse of Heav'n, in pulsive Starts? / That veiny Rush! That warm, tumultuous, Roll! / That Fire that kindles Bodies into Soul!"
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1726, 1753
"As fire, by nature, climbs direct, and bright, / And beams, in spotless rays, a shining light; / But if some gross obstruction stops its way, / Smokes in low curls, and scents the sullied day: / So love, itself, untainted, and refin'd, / Borrows a tincture, from the colour'd mind."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1727
"It is without Doubt, that Fancy and Imagination form a world of Apparitions in the Minds of Men and Women; (for we must not exclude the Ladies in this Part, whatever we do) and People go away as thoroughly possess'd with the Reality of having seen the Devil, as if they convers'd Face to Face wit...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: April 30, 1730
"The spirit of the brain, distilled by the heat of the imagination, like some chemical preparations, when exposed to the air, is apt to smoke, to take fire, to crack, and bounce, to the no small disturbance of the neighbourhood."
preview | full record— Richard Russel and John Martyn
Date: 1742
"Beware the counterfeit: in Passion's flame / Hearts melt; but melt like ice, soon harder froze."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1742
"A soul immortal, spending all her fires, / Wasting her strength in strenuous idleness, / Thrown into tumult, raptured, or alarm'd, / At aught this scene can threaten, or indulge, / Resembles ocean into tempest wrought, / To waft a feather, or to drown a fly."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1743
"He, the great Father, kindled at one flame / The world of rationals; one spirit pour'd / From Spirit's awful fountain; pour'd Himself / Through all their souls; but not in equal stream."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Would thou wert not / Compos'd of grief and tenderness alone, / But had'st a spark of other passions in thee, / Pride, anger, vanity, the strong desire / Of admiration, dear to woman kind;/ These might contend with, and allay thy grief, / As meeting tides and currents smooth our firth."
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)
Date: 1760-7
"Indeed there is one thing to be considered, that in Nova Zembla, North Lapland, and in all those cold and dreary tracts of the globe, which lie more directly under the artick and antartick circles,--where the whole province of a man's concernments lies for near nine months together, withi...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)