Date: December 10, 1782; 1783

"I only wish to impress on your minds the true distinction between essential and subordinate powers, and shew what qualities in the art claim your chief attention, and what may, with the least injury to your reputation, be neglected."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1783

"From reading the most admired productions of genius, whether in poetry or prose, almost every one rises with some good impressions left on his mind; and though these may not always be durable, they are at least to be ranked among the means of disposing the heart to virtue."

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"There is a certain string, which, being properly struck, the human heart is so made as to answer to it."

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"Although there may be some few exceptions, yet in general it holds, that when the bent of the mind is wholly directed towards some one object, exclusive, in a manner, of others, there is the fairest prospect of eminence in that, whatever it be. The rays must converge to a point, in order to glow...

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"Hence infinite space, endless numbers, and eternal duration, fill the mind with great ideas."

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"There is, too, in architecture, what is called Greatness of manner; which seems chiefly to arise, from presenting the object to us in one full point of view; so that it shall make its impression whole, entire, and undivided, upon the mind."

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"Now, when an author has brought us, or is attempting to bring us, into this state; if he multiplies words unnecessarily, if he decks the Sublime object which he presents to us, round and round, with glittering ornaments; nay, if he throws in any one decoration that sinks in the least below the c...

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"It must be painted with such circumstances as fill the mind with great and awful ideas."

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"The utmost we can expect is, that this fire of imagination should sometimes flash upon us like lightning from heaven, and then disappear."

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1783

"Some, indeed, there are, who, by a strength and dignity in their conceptions, and a current of high ideas that runs through their whole composition, preserve the reader's mind always in a tone nearly allied to the Sublime; for which reason they may, in a limited sense, merit the name of continue...

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)