Date: 1745

"Soon as his Breast receiv'd the potent Ray, / Whate'er possest it, instantly gave way; / As in the Wood before the Lightning's Beam, / Perish the Leaves, and the whole Tree is Flame."

— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)

Date: 1745

"With inward eyes, and silent as the grave, / They stand collecting every beam of thought, / Till their hearts kindle with Divine delight; / For all their thoughts, like angels seen of old / In Israel's dream, come from, and go to, heaven."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1745

"Imagination is the Paphian shop, / Where feeble Happiness, like Vulcan, lame, / Bids foul Ideas, in their dark recess, / And hot as hell, (which kindled the black fires,) / With wanton art, those fatal arrows form / Which murder all thy time, health, wealth, and fame."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1745

"His virtue, constitutionally deep, / Has Habit's firmness, and Affection's flame; / Angels, allied, descend to feed the fire; / And Death, which others slays, makes him a god."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1746, 1753

"The time shall come--(nor far the destin'd day!) / When soul-touch'd actors shall do more, than play: / When passion, flaming, from th'asserted stage, / Shall, to taught greatness, fire a feeling age."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1746, 1753

"Bid the face, red'ning, warm'd idea take, / Strait, the soul's wildfires all obstruction break: / Stung, by inflicted thought's imagin'd pain, / Hard heave the muscles, rolling eye-balls strain: / 'Twixt the clos'd teeth, indignantly, supprest, / Or, storm-like, loud, out pours th' unguarded bre...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1748

Thought is "The fire that warms the poet's brain."

— Philips, Ambrose (1674-1749)

Date: 1749

Charles XII of Sweden has "A Frame of Adamant, a Soul of Fire, / No Dangers fright him, and no Labours tire."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: October 1750, 1752, 1791

"Still pouring forth executive desire, / As bright, as brisk, and lasting, as the vestal fire."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: April 1750, 1791

"Tho' gratitude were bless'd with all the pow'rs / Her bursting heart cou'd long for, tho' the swift, / The firey-wing'd imagination soar'd / Beyond ambition's wish--yet all were vain / To speak him as he is, who is INEFFABLE."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)