Date: 1759
"For, consider, since an impartial Providence scatters talents indifferently, as thro' all orders of persons, so thro' all periods of time; since, a marvelous light, unenjoy'd of old, is pour'd on us by revelation, with larger prospects extending our Understanding, with brighter objects enriching...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"When we read, let our imagination kindle at their charms; when we write, let our judgment shut them out of our thoughts; treat even Homer himself, as his royal admirer was treated by the cynic; bid him stand aside, nor shade our Composition from the beams of our own genius; for nothing Original ...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: January 27, 1759.
"That it is vain to shrink from what cannot be avoided, and to hide that from ourselves which must some time be found, is a truth which we all know, but which all neglect, and perhaps none more than the speculative reasoner, whose thoughts are always from home, whose eye wanders over life, whose ...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1662, 1762
"My heart was hot within me; and while I was thus musing the fire kindled: and at the last I spake with my tongue."
preview | full record— The Church of England
Date: 1766
"Considering these words, in a religious sense; that of 'fervency', seems to rise upon 'warmth'; 'warmth' implying, a flame of devotion, in opposition to coolness; 'fervency', great heat of mind, as opposed to coldness."
preview | full record— Trusler, John (1735-1820)
Date: 1773
"May you be enabled, by reading them frequently, to transfuse into your own breast that holy flame which inspired the writer!"
preview | full record— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)
Date: December 10, 1774; 1775
"The mind, or genius has been compared to a spark of fire, which is smothered by a heap of fewel, and prevented from blazing into a flame: This simile which is made use of, by the younger Pliny, may be easily mistaken for argument or proof."
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: December 10, 1774; 1775
"There is no danger of the mind's being over-burthened with knowledge, or the genius extinguished by any addition of images; on the contrary, these acquisitions may be as well, perhaps better, be compared, if comparisons signified any thing in reasoning, to the supply of living embers, which will...
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: December 10, 1774; 1775
"Our hearts frequently warmed in this manner, by the contact of those whom we wish to resemble, will undoubtedly catch something of their way of thinking, and we shall receive in our own bosoms some radiation at least of their fire and splendour."
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: 1774
"I expect the incomparable fair one of Hamburg, that prodigy of beauty, and paragon of good sense, who has enslaved your mind, and inflamed your heart."
preview | full record— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)