Date: 1698

"A well work'd Poem is a powerful piece of Imposture: It masters the Fancy, and hurries it no Body knows whither.--If therefore we would be govern'd by Reason let us stand off from the Temptation, such Pleasures can have no good Meaning."

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: 1698

"This sort of Musick warms the Passions, and unlocks the Fancy, and makes it open to Pleasure like a Flower to the Sun."

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: 1698

"Now why should it be in the power of a few mercenary Hands to play People out of their Senses, to run away with their Understandings, and wind their Passions about their Fingers as they list?"

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: 1698

"People love to see their Passions painted no less than their Persons: And like Narcissus are apt to dote on their own Image."

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: 1698

"Love has generally a Party Within; And when the Wax is prepared, the Impression is easily made."

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: 1698

"The Passions are up in Arms, and there's a mighty Contest between Duty, and Inclination. The Mind is over-run with Amusements, and commonly good for nothing sometime after."

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: 1705

"Their Medly Temper, their amphibious Mind / Is fraught with Principles of every kind; / Nor ever can from Stain and Error free,/ Assert its Native Truth, and Energy."

— Shippen, William (bap. 1673, d. 1743)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"A Narrative which has its Foundation in TRUTH and NATURE; and at the same time that it agreeably entertains, by a Variety of curious and affecting Incidents, is intirely divested of all those Images, which, in too many Pieces calculated for Amusement only, tend to inflame th...

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"She pours out all her Soul in [Soliloquies and little Reasonings] before her Parents without Disguise; so that one may judge of, nay, almost see, the inmost Recesses of her Mind"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

The mind may be a "pure clear Fountain of Truth and Innocence."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)