Date: 1770

"Reason and Nature are the judges here."

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1771

"But, Sir, my passions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and to virtue nothing but my wishes and my sighs."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1771

"I conjure you--however severe the conflict, gratitude shall ever be the predominant passion of my soul--oh! fly this instant."

— Stevens, George Alexander (1710?-1784)

Date: 1772

"With that strong master of our frame, / The inexorable judge within / What can be done?"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1772

"Long I every means have tried / To subdue the inbred ill; / Still I am not sanctified, / Rules my ruling passion still."

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1764, 1773

"Such is my theme, which means to prove, / That tho' we drink, or game, or love, / As that or this is most in fashion, / Precedence is our ruling passion."

— Shenstone, William (1714-1763)

Date: 1773

"There may I worship, and there may'st Thou place / Thy Seat of Mercy and Thy Throne of Grace; / Yea, fix, if Christ my Advocate appear, / The dread Tribunal of Thy Justice there!"

— Byrom, John (1692-1763)

Date: 1773

"The grand Contrivance why so well equip / With strength of Passions, rul'd by Reason's Whip?"

— Byrom, John (1692-1763)

Date: 1773, 1814

"The bustling World, to fetch her out from thence, / Will urge the various, plausible Pretence; / Will praise Perfections of a grander Name, / Sound great Exploíts, and call her out to Fame; / Amuse and flatter, till the Soul, too prone / To Self-activity, deserts her Throne."

— Byrom, John (1692-1763)

Date: 1773

"If Reason must judge, and we two must agree, / Another, third Reason must give the Decree"

— Byrom, John (1692-1763)