Date: 1789
"They [African customs] had been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression on my mind, which time could not erase, and which all the adversity and variety of fortune I have since experienced served only to rivet and record; for, whether the love of one's country be real or imaginary...
preview | full record— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)
Date: 1790
"There is no commonly honest man who does not more dread the inward disgrace of such an action, the indelible stain which it would for ever stamp upon his own mind, than the greatest external calamity which, without any fault of his own, could possibly befal him; and who does not inwardly feel th...
preview | full record— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
Date: 1791
"In the rich realms of polished taste, / Where judgment penetrates to find / The treasures of the unwrought mind, / Where conversation's ardent spirit / Refines from dross the ore of merit, / Where emulation aids the flame / And stamps the sterling bust of fame."
preview | full record— West, Jane (1758-1852)
Date: 1792
"They bade retentive memory on their mind / Impress each image, in distinctive lines / That mock'd erasure."
preview | full record— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)
Date: 1796
"No drug, nor juice of all the acid tribe, / Can move the Tints, which Glassy Pores imbibe; / So no mean prejudice, no bribes, nor art, / Efface th' Impressions of an Upright Heart."
preview | full record— Bishop, Samuel (1731-1795)
Date: 1796
"The pleasures which he had just tasted for the first time were still impressed upon his mind: his brain was bewildered, and presented a confused chaos of remorse, voluptuousness, inquietude, and fear."
preview | full record— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)
Date: 1796
"The damning contract weighed heavy upon his mind; and the scenes in which he had been a principal actor, had left behind them such impressions as rendered his heart the seat of anarchy and confusion."
preview | full record— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)
Date: 1797
"Over the gloom of Schedoni, no scenery had, at any moment, power; the shape and paint of external imagery gave neither impression or colour to his fancy."
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1803
The muse "beams a visionary day: / Bright as the magic torch she early gave / To light thy ven'trous way, through fancy's secret cave."
preview | full record— Hunter [née Home], Anne (1742-1821)
Date: w. 1798, 1803-4
"He had perceived the presence and the power / Of greatness, and deep feelings had impressed / Great objects on his mind with portraiture / And colour so distinct that on his mind / They lay like substances, and almost seemed / To haunt the bodily sense."
preview | full record— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)