Date: January 16, 1719

"No, Madam, I say, not that I mean to use my Power, I tell you only what it is, my Heart has broke your Chain, I claim no Right over you."

— Johnson, Charles (1679?-1748)

Date: 1723

"Thou [God] only can'st the wond'rous Links descry / That Minds unbody'd to a Body tye."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the downy Chains that softly bind / Our slumb'ring Sense, when waiting Objects find / No Avenue left open to the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Can Pains and Prisons Errour's Force controul, / And the chain'd Body loose the fetter'd Soul?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1702 [1735, 1779, 1779-80, 1790]

"O generous Sympathy, that binds / In Chains unseen the bravest Minds!"

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1735

"Affection is the Chain of grateful Minds."

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: w. before June 1735?

"Let vows or benefits the vulgar bind, / Such ties can never chain th' intrepid mind."

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

Date: w. 1736, 1749

"Why should I drag along this life I hate, / Without one thought to mitigate the weight? / Whence this mysterious bearing to exist, / When every joy is lost, and every hope dismissed? / In chains and darkness wherefore should I stay, / And mourn in prison, while I keep the key?"

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

Date: November 9, 1779

"Thus, conscience freed from ev'ry clog, / Mahometans eat up the hog."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"He [the slave] feels his body's bondage in his mind, / Puts off his generous nature, and, to suit / His manners with his fate, puts on the brute."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)