Date: 1786

"I hope therefore the united motives of Christianity and humanity will animate every generous spark of benevolence in the mind of the governors, &c. (in which those virtues appeared to be suspended by suffering with impunity the abuses and neglects here complained of), and that they will accordin...

— Nolan, William (fl. 1786)

Date: 1787

"Architecture being one of the fine arts, and as such within the department of a professor of the college, according to the new arrangement, perhaps a spark may fall on some young subjects of natural taste, kindle up their genius, and produce a reformation in this elegant and useful art."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: December 11, 1786; 1787

"Because these Arts, in their highest province, are not addressed to the gross senses, but to the desires of the mind, to that spark of divinity which we have within, impatient of being circumscribed and pent up by the world which is about us."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1788

" My panting soul is all on fire"

— Whalley, Thomas Sedgwick (1746-1828)

Date: 1788

"Within the heart which love illumes, / And blesses with his sacred rays, / If meaner passion e'er presumes, / It fades before the hallow'd blaze."

— Cobb, James (1756-1818)

Date: 1788, 1803

"Oh! may good angels, kindling in thy breast / The lamp of reason, guard thee from their snares!"

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)

Date: 1788

"Thou Christian emperor in whose generous breast / The light of pure devotion shone impress'd, / That sacred light descending from above, / An emanation of coelestial love; / With speed of light'ning spread the lambent ray, / Till realms of darkness kindled into day; / From God himself the spark ...

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1789

"Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its fire and every noble sentiment?"

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"Situated as we were, who could think that men should be so careless of the danger they were in? for, if the wind had but raised the swell as it was when the vessel struck, we must have bid a final farewel to all hopes of deliverance; and though, I warned the people who were drinking, and entreat...

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789, 1797

"Each motive base it [the soul] nobly spurns, / And bright with purest passion burns."

— Berkeley, George Monck (1763-1793)