Date: 1717

"But that bright Daughter of eternal Day [Reason], / Holds in our mortal Frame a dubious Sway."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"Yet banish'd from the Realms by Right [Reason's] own, / Passion, a blind Usurper, mounts the Throne."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"If a single thought / Were tinctur'd with disloyalty, this hand / Shou'd pierce my heart to drive the rebel out."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Blind fortune that bestows / The perishable toys of wealth and pow'r, / At random oft resumes them, pleas'd to make / An hurricane of life: but the firm mind / Safe on exalted virtue reigns sedate, / Superior to the giddy whirls of fate."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Prepare with every smiling grace t'adorn / The festival; and let victorious joy / Chase every black idea from thy mind: / For ever banish from thy gentle breast / All cares, except the pleasing cares of love!"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Alas! the pain / We feel, whene'er we dispossess the soul / Of that tormenting tyrant [love], far exceeds / The rigor of his rule."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"With reason quell / That haughty passion; treat it as your slave: / Resume the monarch!"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"At this late hour, / What discord breaks the virtuous harmony, / Which wont to reign within thy pious breast?"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)