Date: 1719-1720, 1725
"You see, my Lord, said he with a Sigh, that I have put it out of her Power to triumph over my Weakness, for I confess my Heart still wears her Chains; but e'er my Eyes or Tongue betray to her the shameful Bondage, these Hands should tear them out."
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1736
"To live without Restraint, is to live indeed, cry'd she, and I no longer wonder, that the free Mind finds it so difficult to yield to those Fetters, Priests and Philosophers would bind it in, and which were never forged by, nor are consistent with Reason."
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1739
"Long my imprison'd spirit lay, / Fast bound in sin and nature's night: / Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; / I woke; the dungeon flamed with light; / My chains fell off, my heart was free, / I rose, went forth, and follow'd Thee."
preview | full record— Wesley, John and Charles
Date: 1739
"To usher forth the Virtues of the Mind! / From Nature's Chain, from Earthly Dross set free, / One only Appetite remained in Thee."
preview | full record— Wesley, John and Charles
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 1750
"He saw that, instead of conquering their fears, the endeavour of his gay friends was only to escape them; but his philosophy chained his mind to its object, and rather loaded him with shackles than furnished him with arms."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 1750
"An habitual sadness seizes upon the soul, and the faculties are chained to a single object, which can never be contemplated but with hopeless uneasiness."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, 13 October 1750
"Those parallel circumstances, and kindred images, to which we readily conform our minds, are, above all other writings, to be found in narratives of the lives of particular persons; and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more deligh...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, April 6, 1751
"Austerities and mortifications are means by which the mind is invigorated and roused, by which the attractions of pleasure are interrupted, and the chains of sensuality are broken."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, April 13, 1751
"It is therefore not less necessary to happiness than to virtue, that he rid his mind of passions which make him uneasy to himself, and hateful to the world, which enchain his intellects, and obstruct his improvement."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, February 25, 1752
"They whose souls are so chained down to coffers and tenements, that they cannot conceive a state in which they shall look upon them with less solicitude, are seldom attentive or flexible to arguments; but the votaries of fame are capable of reflection, and therefore may be called to reconsider t...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)