Date: 1594

"A far more glorious star thy soul will make / Than Julius Caesar or bright--"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1686

"Change did I say, that word I must forbear, / No, she bright Star wont wander from her sphere / Of Virtue (in which Female Souls do move) / Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love."

— Egerton [née Fyge; other married name Field], Sarah (1670-1723)

Date: 1777

"The philosophical doctrine of the slow recession of bodies from the sun, is a lively image of the reluctance with which we first abandon the light of virtue."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1794

"It [Christianity] has put the whole orbit of reason into shade."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)