Date: 1755
A beam of brightness may break on the mind and "drive errors cloud away / & make a calm in passions troubled sea"
preview | full record— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)
Date: 1759
"Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1760-7
The "little interests below" may "rise up and perplex the faculties of our upper regions, and encompass them about with clouds and thick darkness."
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
"So that upon his first setting out, the brisk gale of his spirits, as you will imagine, ran him foul ten times in a day of some body's tackling; and as the grave and more slow-paced were oftenest in his way,—you may likewise imagine, 'twas with such he had generally the ill luck to get the most ...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
"But here, you must distinguish--the thought floated only in Dr. Slop's mind, without sail or ballast to it, as a simple proposition; millions of which, as your worship knows, are every day swiming quietly in the middle of the thin juice of a man's understanding, without being carried backwards o...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1762, 1781
"SUFFOLK's Daughter sinks not with her Woe: / Beneath it's Weight I feel myself resign'd; / Tho' strong the Tempest, stronger still my Mind."
preview | full record— Keate, George (1729-1797)
Date: 1764
"From every speck which hangs upon the sight / Purge my mind's eye, nor let one cloud remain / To spread the shades of error o'er my brain),"
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1766
"'Melancholy', is, generally, the effect of constitution; its cloudy ideas overpower and banish all that are chearful."
preview | full record— Trusler, John (1735-1820)
Date: 1767, 1784
"But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride, / Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain, / Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads, / Or Superstition, with mishapen forms, / Erects its savage empire in the mind."
preview | full record— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)