Date: 1693
"Musick alone inflames my drooping Mind; / Nay, she would mount her Wings, and fly away, / Not be confin'd to this dull Lump of Clay, / Did not the Charms of Musick most divine / Unite, and things so wide, so close combine."
preview | full record— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)
Date: 1728
"Gold is the Load-stone of the Great, / And vulgar Souls must catch the glitt'ring Bait."
preview | full record— Pattison, William (1706-1727)
Date: 1728, 1729, 1736
"She form'd this image of well-bodied air, / With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head, / A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead, / And empty words she gave, and sounding strain, / But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!"
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1737
"Brave Souls when loos'd from this ignoble Chain / Of Clay, and sent to their own Heav'n again, / From Earth's gross Orb on Virtue's Pinions rise / In Æther wanton, and enjoy the Skies."
preview | full record— Baker, Henry (1698-1774)
Date: 1742
"Wisdom, though richer than Peruvian mines, / And sweeter than the sweet ambrosial hive,-- / What is she but the means of happiness?"
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1742
"My soul is dead, my heart is stone, / A cage of birds and beasts unclean, / A den of thieves, a dire abode / Of dragons, but no house of God."
preview | full record— Wesley, John and Charles
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"These the part / Perform of eager monitors, and goad / The soul more sharply than with points of steel, / Her enemies to shun or to resist."
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1745
"Wouldst thou receive them, other Thoughts there are, / On angel-wing, descending from above, / Which these, with art Divine, would counterwork, / And form celestial armour for thy peace."<
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"If you, these moral Truths, would comprehend, / To moral Writers, your Attention lend; / By reading them, you'll Wisdom's Honey gain, / And with her golden Stores, inrich your Brain."
preview | full record— Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)
Date: 1760
"O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay, / Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day, / And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar, / Where dangers threat, and fears alarm no more."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)