Date: 1748

"Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind; / But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

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."

— 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...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1749

"His clouded Soul now darts no dazling Ray, / And faintly warms the animated Clay: / Not Rome's sad Ruins such Impressions leave, / As Reason bury'd in the Body's Grave:"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)

Date: 1750

Vain doubts and groundless fears tear the foolish bosom and preced the "rising storm"

— Eusden, Laurence (1688-1730)

Date: 1751, 1791

"The passions are a num'rous crowd, / Imperious, positive, and loud: / Curb these licentious sons of strife; / Hence chiefly rise the storms of life: / If they grow mutinous, and rave, / They are thy masters, thou their slave."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: 1752

"Should passion e'er his soul deform, / Serenely meet the bursting storm; / Never in wordy war engage, / Nor ever meet his rage with rage. / With all our sex's softening art / Recall the lost reason to his heart; / Thus calm the tempest in his breast, / And sweetly soothe his soul to rest."

— Clark [née Lewis], Esther (bap. 1716, d. 1794)

Date: 1752, 1791

"Thy appetites in easy tides / (As reason's luminary guides) / Soft flow--no wind can work them to a storm, / Correctly quick, dispassionately warm."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1752

"Weak, impotent, yet wishing to be free, / You are by much a greater Slave, than me; / A Slave, to ev'ry Gust that shakes your Mind, / Your Eyes broad open, and your Senses blind."

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [pseud.]

Date: 1753

"The clouded minds are purify'd at last."

— Pitt, Christopher (1699-1748)