Date: 1769

"And still my soul they [cares] hold in pain, / Their cruel empire to maintain."

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: 1770

The master-passion may be concealed "but on great occasions,... It will break forth, and loudly tell the world / What fermentation often works the soul"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1776

The ruling passion of an author may be "strongly marked in his writings"

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

Date: 1780-85; in French, 36 vols. 1749-1788

"Is it difficult to perceive that our ideas originate from our senses alone; that the objects we regard as real existences, are those concerning which the senses uniformly give the same testimony."

— Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788)

Date: 1789

"A passion like mine, makes the heart rebellious--it will love on--it will hope, in spite of the rules cold reason dictates"

— Inchbald [née Simpson], Elizabeth (1753-1821)