Date: 1768

"Let me, Reason, own thy force: / Though thou totter'st on thy throne, / Let me call thee still my own"

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)

Date: 1768

A beloved may "o'ercome" a lover's "yielding heart" and fix "her empire there"

— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)

Date: w. 1766, 1768

"And reason fixed her empire in my breast."

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

Date: 1769

"I refused, saying, that, as I was resolved he should in every point be the aggressor, he should fire first; he did, and missed me, and on my soul I believe designedly; for by the changes in his countenance, I could perceive that grief, and not anger, was then the predominant passion in his mind."

— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)

Date: 1769

One may banish from her heart a hopeless passion

— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)

Date: 1769

"Do you think it possible, Lucy, for a Frenchwoman to love? is not vanity the ruling passion of their hearts?"

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

We may blush at past follies and indiscretions "when the empire of reason begins"

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

"For my part, I think no politics worth attending to but those of the little commonwealth of woman: if I can maintain my empire over hearts, I leave the men to quarrel for every thing else."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

"My voyage ought undoubtedly to be considered as an abdication: I am to all intents and purposes dead in law as a lover; and the lady has a right to consider her heart as vacant, and to proceed to a new election."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

Savages may regard "the Christian system of marriage as contrary to the laws of nature and reason"

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)