Date: 1719

"I was not so much surpriz'd with the Lightning, as I was with a Thought which darted into my Mind as swift as the Lightning it self: O my Powder!"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1720

"His Fancy still awake; the roving Guest / Usurps the Throne of Reason in his Breast: / Forms great Ideas, and religious Schemes, / A busy mime, and floats in golden Dreams."

— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)

Date: First performed February 17, 1720.

"My vital Flame / There, like a Taper on the holy Altar, / Shall waste away; till Heav'n relenting hear / Incessant Pray'rs for thee and for my self, / And wing my Soul to meet with thine in Bliss."

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1723

"Can'st say what diff'rent Turns the Spirits take, / When they of diff'rent Kinds Impressions make; / What vital Springs those Spirits in their Flight / Strike to cause Torment, what to give Delight."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Say, can your Mind to Heav'n direct her Flight / In ardent Anhelations?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Yes, and Cæsar sat / Pensive and silent; in his anxious breast / Perhaps revolving that of all his train, / Who proudly wanton in his mounted rays, / Gay flutt'ring insects of a summer-noon, / How few wou'd bear the wintry storms of fate!"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"My lord, recall / Your wandering reason."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1724

"'Tis impossible to express the anxious Thoughts that rowl'd about in my Mind, and continually perplex'd me about her."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1724

Shafts more subtile, may be darted from the Eye and "Thro' softer Hearts with silent Conquest fly"

— Ramsay, Allan (1684-1758)

Date: 1724

"For Nature by fix'd Laws has wisely join'd / The bright Ideas of the conscious Mind / To Motions of the liquid spirit'ous Train, / Thro' previous Traces of the humid Brain; / These, when the Soul by drowsy Sleep oppress'd / Into her private Cell retires to Rest, / Thro' beaten Paths their wand'r...

— Needler, Henry (1690-1718); Duncombe, William (1690-1769)