Date: 1745

"Forgive my Heat. / My rankled Mind, by Injuries inflam'd, / May be too prompt to take and give Offence."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"Nought now has Charms or Terrors to my Breast, / The Seat of stupid Woe!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"O how I could reproach Thee, Sigismunda! / Pour out my injur'd Soul in just Complaints!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"The conscious Mind is its own awful World."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"But now not all my partial Heart can plead, / Shall ever shake th' unalterable Dictates / That tyrannize my Breast."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"Yes, yes Inhuman! / Since thy Barbarian Heart is steel'd by Pride, / Shut up to Love and Pity, here behold me / Cast on the Ground, a vile and abject Wretch!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"Off! Traitors! off! or my distracted Soul / Will burst indignant from this Jail of Nature! / To where she beckons yonder."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"Ha! my Brain / Is all on fire! a wild Abyss of Thought!"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"Behold the fatal Work of my dark Hand, / That by rude Force the Passions would command, / That ruthless sought to root them from the Breast; / They may be rul'd, but will not be opprest."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1745

"And, in my Opinion, we have as much need of the Hand of Culture to call forth our latent Powers, to direct their Exercise; in fine, to shape and polish us into Men, as the unformed Block has of the Craver or Statuary's Skill, to draw it out of that rude State, into the Form and Proportions of a ...

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)