Date: 1730
"Close crowds the shining atmosphere; and binds / Our strengthen'd bodies in its cold embrace, / Constringent; feeds, and animates our blood; / Refines our spirits, through the new-strung nerves, / In swifter sallies darting to the brain; / Where sits the soul, intense, collected, cool, / Bright ...
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1738, 1792
"But soon a beam, emissive from above, / Shed mental day, and touch'd the heart with love; / Gave jealous rage to know Divine Controul, / And ruled the tempest rising in the soul."
preview | full record— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)
Date: 1742
"Through chinks, styled organs, dim Life peeps at light; / Death bursts the' involving cloud, and all is day; / All eye, all ear, the disembodied power."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1743
"Still spread a healing mist before the mind; / And lest we err by Wit's wild dancing light, / Secure us kindly in our native night."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1744
"In Lust's dominion, and in Passion's storm, / Truth's system broken, scatter'd fragments lay: / (As light in chaos, glimmering through the gloom)."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1744, 1772, 1795
"Vehement and swift / As lightening fires the aromatic shade / In Æthiopian fields, the stripling felt / Her inspiration catch his fervid soul, / And starting from his languor thus exclaim'd."
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1746, 1753
Love "'Tis like soft air, through which admitted light / Peoples pleas'd fancy, and lends shape to sight: / Yet, like that air, disturb'd, man's quiet breaks, / Tempests his reason, and his triumph shakes."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1747, 1811
"'Yes, if his soul to reason's rule resign'd, / 'And heaven's own views fair-opening on his mind,/ 'Caught from bright nature's flame the living ray, / 'Through passion's cloud pour'd in resistless day; / 'And taught mankind in reas'ning Pride's despite, / 'That God is wise, and all that is righ...
preview | full record— Mason, William (1725-1797)
Date: w. 1740, 1748
"Thirsting for Knowledge, but to know the right, / Thro' judgment's optick guide th' illusive sight, / To let in rays on Reason's darkling cell, / And Prejudice's lagging mists dispel."
preview | full record— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)
Date: 1749
"Yet should thy Soul indulge the gen'rous Heat, / Till captive Science yields her last Retreat / Should Reason guide thee with her brightest Ray, / And pour on misty Doubt resistless Day; / Should no false Kindness lure to loose Delight, / Nor Praise relax, nor Difficulty fright; / Should temptin...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)