Date: 1782

In polishing the mind, Luxury gives it a "childish cast"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"Neglected talents rust into decay"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"Let heathen worthies, whose exalted mind / Left sensuality and dross behind, / Possess for me their undisputed lot"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: November 10, 1783

"He gives, what bankrupt Nature never can, / Whose noblest coin is light and brittle man, / Gold, purer far than Ophir ever knew, / A soul, an image of himself, and therefore true."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1783

"In lucent words my darkling verses dight, / And wash my earthy mind in thy clear streams,"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1783

"O sheathe their hearts with triple steel, that they / May emulate their fathers' virtues"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1785

Wisdom is a pearl "with most success / Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

The mind may be "polish'd"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

"Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave / Need no such aids as superstition lends / To steel their hearts against the dread of death!"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

"Yet patient wait, till grace his will subdue, / The fire his dross, the spirit his heart renew:"

— Perronet, Edward (1721-1792)