Date: 1746, 1753

"They [the passions], at once, surround us, and evade us, as the LIGHT does; -- By, and through it, we see all Things--But Itself remains invisible."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"The SOUL, inhabiting the Brain, or acting, where it doubtless does, immediately behind the Optic Nerves, stamps, instantaneously upon the Eye, and Eyebrow, a struck Image of conceiv'd Idea: And that in Fact it does This, and that it does it, in the very Instant of Conception, every Man must ever...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Mourn it, ye sons of spleen, whose hands (mistaught) / Tore up this seed of sense, this plant of thought / Whence reasoning shoots might bloom life's garden o'er, And weedy wildness choak her walks no more."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Not always, shall ambition's muddied brain / Work to perswade--yet, hold example vain!"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"The time shall come--(nor far the destin'd day!) / When soul-touch'd actors shall do more, than play: / When passion, flaming, from th'asserted stage, / Shall, to taught greatness, fire a feeling age."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"E'er sense, impress'd, reflects adopted forms, / And changeful nature shakes, with borrow'd storms: / E'er ductile genius turns, as passions wind, / And bends, to fancy's curve, the pliant mind."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Light'ning, and thunder, so concurring, strike, / One their joint origin, tho' form'd unlike: / So, to the look, th' attentive nerves reply, / As, from the flash, succeeding thunders fly."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Fear is elusive sorrow, shunning pain; / Active--yet, stop'd--it dims the doubtful brain; / Spirit snatch'd inward, stagnating, by dread, / Slow, thro' the limbs, crawls cold, the living lead: / Form'd to the look, that moulds th' assumer's face, / His joints catch tremblings--life's moist strin...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Bid the face, red'ning, warm'd idea take, / Strait, the soul's wildfires all obstruction break: / Stung, by inflicted thought's imagin'd pain, / Hard heave the muscles, rolling eye-balls strain: / 'Twixt the clos'd teeth, indignantly, supprest, / Or, storm-like, loud, out pours th' unguarded bre...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Nor sea, nor life, eternal Tempest sweeps, / Hush'd calms succeed it, and the thunder sleeps: / Such, the soft, silent tide, that floods the mind, / To mov'd Compassion's pain-touch'd warmth, inclin'd."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)