Date: 1780

A friend's "influence hovers o'er the panting heart ... Till the pain'd, prison'd mind shall rise, / And drop her feeble mansion in the dust, / To claim thy promis'd bliss beyond the skies"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

"May every ear the call obey, / Be every heart a humble guest!"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

"Shall vanity enslave this freeborn mind, / And chains of sense my nobler passions bind?"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

"In vain my fetter'd thoughts attempt to fly / And weakly fluttering mean the distant sky!"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

"Reason, (weak empress of the mind) / To passion had the helm consign'd"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

Virtue and "this virtues woman" may be "first ruling passions"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

"Reason's empire never knew a slave, / Her sway is gentle and her laws are kind"

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

Reason's subjects work and return home with "treasures fraught" and display before their queen their "shining spoils, which are laid up in "mental stores."

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)

Date: 1780

"Those mental stores shall cheer the wintery hours, / And flowers unfading breathe their sweets at home.// Extracting food amid the vernal bloom, / So flies the industrious bee around the vale, / With native skill she forms the waxen comb, / To keep for wintery days the rich regale."

— Steele, Anne (1717-1778)