Date: 1791, 1806

"I'll snatch a ray of hope, / For Hope's the lamp divine / That lights and vivifies the fainting soul, / With ecstacies beyond the pow'rs of song!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"Truth can derive no eminence from birth, / Rich in the proud supremacy of worth; / Its blest dominion vast and unconfin'd, / Its crown eternal, and its throne the mind!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"Does Liberty with barbarous fetters bind / Her first-born hope, the freedom of the mind?"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

The "eye of Reason" may "cloudless shine"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"And Truth's white bosom stampt with falsehood's stain!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793

"For what is sleep, but temporary death; / Sealing up all the windows of the soul, / And binding ev'ry thought in torpid chains?"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"'Twas Instinct rushing thro' her beating breast! / Instinct, the lamp divine that lights the soul"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"The noblest passions, and the living pow'rs / Of intellectual light, the soul's pure lamp, / All, all extinguish'd! "

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793

"But, most of all, [the mind is subject] to that lov'd voice, whose thrill, / Rushing impetuous through each throbbing vein, / Dilates the wond'ring mind, and frees its pow'rs / From the cold chains of icy apathy / To all the vast extremes of bliss and pain!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1796, 1806

"A dread coincidence of time and act / Drew me from Reason's empire to Despair!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)