Date: 1740
"But notwithstanding the empire of the imagination, there is a secret tie or union among particular ideas, which causes the mind to conjoin them more frequently together, and makes the one, upon its appearance, introduce the other."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1744
"What wealth in Intellect, that sovereign power, / Which Sense and Fancy summons to the bar; / Interrogates, approves, or reprehends; / And from the mass those underlings import, / From their materials sifted, and refined, / And in Truth's balance accurately weigh'd, / Forms art and science, gove...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"Then the inexpressive strain / Diffuses its inchantment: fancy dreams / Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves, / And vales of bliss: the intellectual power / Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear, / And smiles: the passions, gently sooth'd away, / Sink to divine repose, and love and joy /...
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"Defil'd to such a depth of sordid shame / The native honours of the human soul, / Nor so effac'd the image of its sire."
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1745
"But from my Soul to banish, / While weeping Memory there retains her Seat, / Thoughts which the purest Bosom might have cherish'd, / Once my Delight, now even in Anguish charming, / Is more, alas! my Lord, than I can promise."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1748
"Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne, / Speak the commanding word 'I will!' and it is done."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: Saturday, November 17, 1750
"[F]or most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of custom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1751, 1777
"Another spring of our constitution, that brings a great addition of force to moral sentiment, is, the love of fame; which rules, with such uncontrolled authority, in all generous minds, and is often the grand object of all their designs and undertakings."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: June, 1756
"But soul-rejoicing health again returns, / The blood meanders gentle in each vein, / The lamp of life renew'd with vigour burns, / And exil'd reason takes her seat again-- / Brisk leaps the heart, the mind's at large once more, / To love, to praise, to bless, to wonder and adore."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757
"Within my bosom reigns another lord; / Honour, sole judge and umpire of itself."
preview | full record— Home, John (1722-1808)