Date: 1770

"This Night we'd fix her [the Muse of Comedy's] Empire in your Hearts."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1770, 1806

"Nor pride nor fickleness could claim / The empire of his mind."

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

Date: w. prior to April 1770; 1785, 1837, 1875

"The groves of Kew, however misapplied / To serve the purposes of lust and pride, / Were, by the greater monarch's care, designed / A place of conversation for the mind; / Where solitude and silence should remain, / And conscience keep her sessions and arraign."

— Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770)

Date: 1770

Powerful charms may extend "their empire over the heart"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1770

"Reason and Nature are the judges here."

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1771

"But, Sir, my passions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and to virtue nothing but my wishes and my sighs."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1771

"I conjure you--however severe the conflict, gratitude shall ever be the predominant passion of my soul--oh! fly this instant."

— Stevens, George Alexander (1710?-1784)

Date: 1772

"With that strong master of our frame, / The inexorable judge within / What can be done?"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1772

"Long I every means have tried / To subdue the inbred ill; / Still I am not sanctified, / Rules my ruling passion still."

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1773

"O Wisdom! if thy soft controul / Can soothe the sickness of the soul, / Can bid the warring passions cease, / And breathe the calm of tender peace;-- / Wisdom! I bless thy gentle sway, / And ever, ever will obey."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)