Date: 1774
"The imagination resembles a person attached to home, who cannot without reluctance undertake a long journey, but can with pleasure make short excursions, returning home from each, and thence setting out anew."
preview | full record— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)
Date: 1775
"With thee among the haunted groves / The lovely sorc'ress Fancy roves, / O let me find her here!"
preview | full record— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)
Date: August, September, and October, 1779
"Thus it happened with me on the present occasion; and I found my ideas suddenly drawn from the sermon in my hand and (in their vagabond way) hurrying over the birth, parentage, education, and situation of the reverend penman."
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: 1783
"While we listen to a discourse, or read a book, how often , in spite of all our care, does the fancy wander, and present thoughts quite different from those we have in view! "
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Date: 1785
"[W]hen the mind is absent, and the thoughts are wandering to something else than what is passing in the place in which we are, we are often miserable"
preview | full record— Paley, William (1743-1805)
Date: 1789, 1792
"The tops of these scarce veil'd the roots of those; / A winding court where wandering fancy walk'd / And to herself responsive Echo talk'd."
preview | full record— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)