Date: 1722

"Zeno, and his scholars the Stoicks, took an odd fancy, that the passions were not interwoven with the constitution of man, and so were no part of his nature, but the blemishes and vicious excrescencies of the soul, and therefore ought to be entirely cut off; noxious weeds, that poison'd the mind...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: February 1755

"See yon delicious woodbines rise / By oaks exalted to the skies, / So view in Harriot's matchless mind / Humility and greatness join'd."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1758, 1781

"'Tis hence the sev'ral Passions take their Rise, / The Seeds of Virtue, and the Roots of Vice; / Hence Notes peculiar or to Young, or Old, / Phlegmatic, sanguine, amorous, or cold!"

— Hawkins, William (1721-1801)

Date: 1764

"Like such a garden, when the human soul, / Uncultured, wild, impatient of control, / Brings forth those passions of luxuriant race, /Which spread, and stifle every herb of grace

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

Virtue may wither on the bed she was born until Philosophy steps in and "clears the encumbered land" and "roots up every weed"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1765

"Reason in the bosom pours, / Its growth improves, its fruit matures, / Each counsel of the human brain / Weighs in his scale, and stamps it vain?"

— Merrick, James (1720-1769)

Date: 1765

"That fruit thy covenant may yield, / Which is upon my forehead seal'd, / And on my heart ingraft."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1765

"Thro' rooted vice my spirits fail, / Which o'er my heart an empire wins, / O let thy mercy countervail / To cover all our sins."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1767, 1784

"But plant some gentler passion in its room, / Some virtuous instinct suited to your make, / As glory is to ours, alike required / A ransom for the vulgar's vassal state, / Then wou'dst thou soon the strong contention own, / And justify my conduct."

— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)