Date: 1747-8
"And is it not philosophy carried to the highest pitch, for a man to conquer such tumults of soul as I am sometimes agitated by, and, in the very height of the storm, to be able to quaver out an horse-laugh?"
preview | full record— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)
Date: w. 1740, 1748
"Thirsting for Knowledge, but to know the right, / Thro' judgment's optick guide th' illusive sight, / To let in rays on Reason's darkling cell, / And Prejudice's lagging mists dispel."
preview | full record— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)
Date: 1749
"Yet should thy Soul indulge the gen'rous Heat, / Till captive Science yields her last Retreat / Should Reason guide thee with her brightest Ray, / And pour on misty Doubt resistless Day; / Should no false Kindness lure to loose Delight, / Nor Praise relax, nor Difficulty fright; / Should temptin...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1750
Vain doubts and groundless fears tear the foolish bosom and preced the "rising storm"
preview | full record— Eusden, Laurence (1688-1730)
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 1750
"Those sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence must shew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his po...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, September 22, 1750
"The thoughts that entered my soul were too strong to be diverted, and too piercing to be endured; but such violence cannot be lasting, the storm subsided in a short time, I wept, retired, and grew calm."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1751
One may be "tost about at the pleasure of every wind" and"hurried thro' the ocean of life, just as each each predominant passion direction
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1751
On waking one may feel "A darksome mist, which rises from my mind, /And, like sweet sun-shine, leaves your name behind"
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)
Date: 1751
"There are few among Mankind, who have not been often struck with Admiration at the Sight of that Variety of Colours and Magnificence of Form, which appear in an Evening Rainbow. The uninstructed in Philosophy consider that splendid Object, not as dependent on any other, but as being possessed of...
preview | full record— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Date: 1751, 1791
"The passions are a num'rous crowd, / Imperious, positive, and loud: / Curb these licentious sons of strife; / Hence chiefly rise the storms of life: / If they grow mutinous, and rave, / They are thy masters, thou their slave."
preview | full record— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)