Date: 1722

"When religious passions, namely, love, desire, hope and delight are exalted in the highest degree, and agitate the soul with the greatest vehemence, while reason presides as sovereign, holds the reins, and directs all their motions; this is so far from being a wild and extravagant temper of mind...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the secret Soul's imperial Throne / Surrounded with thick Darkness, like thy own, / Where she to all the Senses Audience gives, / Appoints their Tasks, their Messages receives, / And passes Judgement in her Sov'reign Court / On every Envoy's true or false Report / How her sole Nod...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Enormous Bacchanalian Pleasures, loose / Milesian Feasts and Luxury in Use / Among abandon'd Sibarites, were dear / To all the Natives sunk in Riot here, / As they to brutal Instincts had resign'd / Celestial Reason's Empire of the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"How does this Tyrant lord it in thy Mind? / What Symptoms of his Empire do'st thou find?"

— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)

Date: 1723

"Does in thy Thought some blooming Beauty reign, / Whose strong Idea mingles Joy with Pain?"

— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)

Date: 1723

"Kings of the Empire of the Soul possest, / Who sit enthron'd secure in every Breast / In Civil Strength, and Glory will encrease, / And triumph mid'st the Joys of lasting Peace."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Vice had usurp'd the Empire of his Soul."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"[C]an Arms o'er Reason Conquests win, / And triumph o'er the awful Judge within?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Can Kings the Empire of the Soul invade?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Tho' now, 'tis true, the strong Temptation's Force / Suspends Religion, and diverts its Course; / Yet still the Pow'r that chiefly rules your Soul, / And will I trust your future Life controul, / Is heav'nly Virtue, which, tho' now opprest / It sleeps a while unactive in your Breast, / Will, rou...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)