Date: 1781, 1791

"How vainly the tumultuous passions strive / To shake his breast! they claim no empire there"

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)

Date: 1781

"Insulted Reason fled the grov'ling soul, / For Fear to guide, and visions to control: / But now, when Reason has assumed her throne, / She, in her turn, demands to reign alone"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1781

Reason may reject "all that lies beyond her view / And being judge, will be a witness too"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1782

"Till then, old red-nos'd Wilson's art / Will hold its empire o'er my heart."

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1782

"Say! wilt Thou listen to his weaker strains, / Who pants to range round Fancy's rich domains; / To vindicate her empire, and disown / Proud System, seated on her injur'd throne?"

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1782

"Let Critic Reason all her light diffuse / O'er the wide empire of this injur'd [Epic] Muse"

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1782

One may "give an image all thine heart" but "Its empire is not hers, nor is it thine, / 'Tis God's just claim, prerogative divine"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

The soul may be "emancipated" and "unoppress'd"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"The mind attains beneath her [Freedom's] happy reign / The growth that nature meant she should attain."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"But what is man in his own proud esteem? / Hear him, himself the poet and the theme: / A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, / His mind his kingdom, and his will his law, / Grace in his mien and glory in his eyes, / Supreme on Earth and worthy of the skies, / Strength in his heart, dominion in...

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)