Date: 1724

"When all at once / A thousand anxious Thoughts that slept by Day, / Swarm'd in my Brain, 'till it resembled Hell, / Hot, dark and hot: my sick Imagination, / Assisted by the Shades of Night, would give / A gloomy turn to each Idea there."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1724

"I cannot speak the rest--the Thought is Hell-- / How my Brain glows! now Reason keep thy Seat."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1724

"[S]o with my Eyes open, and with my Conscience, as I may say, awake, I sinn'd, knowing it to be a Sin, but having no Power to resist; when this had thus made a Hole in my Heart, and I was come to such a height, as to transgress against the Light of my own Conscience, I was then fit for any Wicke...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: Friday, July 31, 1724

"The true Use of Titles, is, That they may serve, as shining Lights, to lay open and illustrate, the spacious Chambers of a Mind well-furnished."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: Friday, July 31, 1724

"But, to a close, and sordid, Soul, they are like Torches, which we carry down, to illuminate a sickly Dungeon: Where they expose, but the more disgracefully, the narrow Cells, bare Walls; and Dirtiness."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: Monday, March 29, 1725.

"When the sable Sweep of Night, / Drowns Distinction from my Sight, / I no inward Darkness find; / You are Day-light, to my Mind."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1725

As when clouds disperse and restore the day, so may a "sudden flash" rush on the soul

— Pitt, Christopher (1699-1748)

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."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1726, 1753

"Boundless desire, aw'd hope, and doubtful joy, / Stormy, by turns, the veering heart employ; / Sick'ning, in fancy's sun-shine, now, we faint, / And licence wounds us deeper, than restraint."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1727

"E'en Light itself, which every thing displays, / Shone undiscover'd, till [Newton's] brighter mind / Untwisted all the shining robe of day."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)