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Date: w. January 24, 1789

"Reason drops headlong from his sacred throne."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

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Date: w. January 24, 1789

"Your dear idea reigns, and reigns alone; / Each thought intoxicated homage yields, / And riots wanton in forbidden fields."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

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Date: 1789, 1800

"On his one ruling passion Sir Pope hugely labors, / That, like th'old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbours."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

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Date: 1789, 1800

"Human Nature's his show-box--your friend, would you know him? / Pull the string, Ruling Passion--the picture will show him."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

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Date: 1793

"Alas the sex you little know, / Their ruling passion is a Beau."

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

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Date: 1794

The mists of faction may pour around one's head

— Mickle, William Julius [formerly William Meikle] (1734-1788)

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Date: 1799

"And, in the waveless mirror of his mind, / Views the fleet years of pleasure left behind, / Since Anna's empire o'er his heart began!"

— Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844)

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Date: 1801

Virtue may be a man's "eternal flame" or "ruling passion"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

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Date: 1808

A woman may stretch "her blameless empire o'er the heart."

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)

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Date: 1814

Shakespeare, "born for British minds alone, / To them has Fancy's boundless empire shewn"

— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.