Date: 1760-7
"Whether they were above my uncle Toby's reason,--or contrary to it,-- or that his brain was like wet tinder, and no spark could possibly take hold,--or that it was so full of saps, mines, blinds, curtins, and such military disqualifications to his seeing clearly into Prignitz and Scroderus's doc...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1761
"Why must I only answer thee with sighs? / What is it hangs thus heavy on my heart, / And weighs it down, when it should spring with joy? / Alas! 'tis conscience; 'tis the pride of honour; / 'Tis the severe condition of my fate, / Which makes it ruin to be lov'd by Tullia, / And warns me to suppr...
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)
Date: 1762
"But long e'er Paphos rose, or Poet sung, / In heav'nly Breasts the sacred Passion sprung: / The same bright Flames in raptur'd Seraphs glow, / As warm consenting Tempers here below.
preview | full record— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date: 1765
"And my heart, within me burning, / Is become like melting wax."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: 1766
"Considering these words, in a religious sense; that of 'fervency', seems to rise upon 'warmth'; 'warmth' implying, a flame of devotion, in opposition to coolness; 'fervency', great heat of mind, as opposed to coldness."
preview | full record— Trusler, John (1735-1820)
Date: 1766
"Fancy leads the fetter'd senses / Captives to her fond controul; / Merit may have rich pretences, / But 'tis Fancy fires the soul."
preview | full record— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)
Date: 1768
"In saying this, I was making not so much La Fleur's eloge, as my own, having been in love with one princess or another almost all my life, and I hope I shall go on so, till I die, being firmly persuaded, that if ever I do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1769
"The first reverend sage who delivered himself on this mysterious subject, having stroked his grey beard, and hemmed thrice with great solemnity, declared that the soul was an animal; a second pronounced it to be the number three, or proportion; a third contended for the number seven, or harmony;...
preview | full record— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)
Date: 1755, 1771
"In every human breast there lives enshrined / Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind; / Some plastic power, some intellectual ray, / Some genial sunbeam from the source of day; / Something that, warm and restless to aspire, / Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire, / And bids us al...
preview | full record— Cawthorn, James (1719-1761)
Date: 1773
"Yet of etherial temper are their souls, / And in their veins the tide of honour rolls; / And valour kindles there the hero's flame, / Contempt of death, and thirst of martial flame. / And pity melts the sympathizing breast, / Ah! fatal virtue!—for the brave distrest."
preview | full record— Day, Thomas (1748-1789)