Date: 1700

"They cannot, no; each sigh Love's flight sustains, / O'er my own Heart in my own Breast he Reigns, / And holds too strong, my strugling Soul in Chains."

— Hopkins, John (b. 1675)

Date: 1706, 1709

"We are a little Kingdom; But the Man / That chains his Rebel Will to Reasons Throne, / Forms it a large one."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: w. before 1717? (first published 1989)

"But he who servily can wish or grieve / For that which is not in his powr to give / Casts off the firmness wch shoud make him great / the strongest shield we can oppose to fate / letts inclinations grow & thus he weaves / Those very bonds which keep us passions slaves."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

Date: 1718

"Reluctant Reason you'll in Fetters keep, / And lay th' insulting Judge within asleep."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Now, when unbridled Passions use to reign, / While vanquish'd Reason wears the Victor's Chain, / See Pleasure, fair and smiling as the Morn, / (Soft Silks her Limbs, gay Flow'rs her Head adorn) / Which with her Breath perfumes the ambient Air, / While sporting Zephyrs heave her golden Hair, / Mi...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Should you presumptuous, quit your safer Ground, / And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound, / And on the Frontier to engage the Foe, With Reason 's weak collected Forces go, / You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass, / Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace, / In her soft ...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1734 [1735?]

"Slave to thy self, whilst Lord of all beside, / Surmount thy Weakness, or renounce thy Pride."

— Paget, Thomas Catesby, Lord Paget (1689-1742)

Date: 1741

"Poor Mind, who heard all with extreme moderation, / Thought it now time to speak, and make her allegation: / ''Tis I that, methinks, have most cause to complain, / Who am cramped and confined like a slave in a chain.'"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1741

"He knew, that vain was ev'ry Art, design'd / To check the Freedom of the humane Will; / That Restraints could shackle up the Mind, / Which, self-determin'd, kept her Empire still."

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)

Date: 1741

"'I've a friend,' answers Mind, 'who, though slow, is yet sure, / And will rid me at last of your insolent power: / Will knock down your walls, the whole fabric demolish, / And at once your strong holds and my slavery abolish: / And while in your dust your dull ruins decay, / I'll snap off my cha...

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)