Date: 1709

Some will tell us "What all our Senseless Dreams import, / Drest in a Thousand various Shapes, / Centaures, Chimæras, Bulls and Apes, / When Fancy is dispos'd her Airyship to Sport."

— Gould, Robert (b. 1660?, d. in or before 1709)

Date: 1710, 1714

""For according as these Passions veer, my Interest veers, my Steerage varies; and I make alternately, now this, now that, to be my Course and Harbour."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1712, 1796

"Unsteady nature, varying like the wind, / Hurries to each extreme th'unstable mind; / At sea becalm'd, we wish some brisker gales / Would on us rise, and fill our limber sails: / We have our wish; and straight our skiff is toss'd / So high, we are in danger to be lost."

— Ellwood, Thomas (1639-1713)

Date: 1715-1720

"'Tis however remarkable that his Fancy, which is every where vigorous, is not discover'd immediately at the beginning of his Poem in its fullest Splendor: It grows in the Progress both upon himself and others, and becomes on Fire like a Chariot-Wheel, by its own Rapidity."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1718

"For from most Bodies, Dick, You know,/ Some little Bits ask Leave to flow; / And, as thro' these Canals They roll, / Bring up a Sample of the Whole. / Like Footmen running before Coaches, / To tell the Inn, what Lord approaches."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1719

"It is as impossible as needless, to set down the innumerable Crowd of Thoughts that whirl'd through that great Thorowfair of the Brain, the Memory, in this Night's Time."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: February 22, 1723

"For 'tis th' infirmity of noblest minds, / When ruffled with an unexpected woe, / To speak what settled prudence wou'd conceal: / As the vex'd ocean working in a storm, / Oft brings to light the wrecks which long lay calm, / In the dark bosom of the secret deep."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: Monday, May 25, 1724

"The Mind of Will. Weathercock is like the Sail of a great Ship, that has Room, to contain much Wind; but, having none, of its own producing, is swell'd out, by Turns, from all the Quarters of the Compass."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1725

A poet shouldn't unfurl his sails in a gale of ungovernable rage

— Pitt, Christopher (1699-1748)

Date: 1727

"In this distracted Condition, Conscience, like a Storm at Sea, still breaks over him; first gathers about him in a thick black Cloud, threatning the Deaths that it comes loaded with; and after hovering about him for a-while, at last bursts with Lightnings and Thunder, and the poor shatter'd Vess...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)