Anna Laetitia Barbauld

"If eer thy breast with freedom glowd, And spurnd a tyrants chain, Let not thy strong oppressive force A free-born mouse detain."

"Flowers, the sole luxury which nature knew, In Edens pure and guiltless garden grew.[…] Gay without toil, and lovely without art, They spring to cheer the sense, and glad the heart."

"So when destruction lurks unseen, Which men like mice may share, May some kind angel clear thy path, And break the hidden snare."

"The cheerful light, the vital air, Are blessings widely given; Let natures commoners enjoy The common gifts of heaven.The well-taught philosophic mind To all compassion gives; Casts round the world an equal eye, And feels for all that lives.If mind, as ancient sages taught, A never dying flame, Still shifts thro matters varying forms, In every form the same, Beware, lest in the worm you crush A brothers soul you find; And tremble lest thy luckless hand Dislodge a kindred mind."

"If an author would have us feel a strong degree of compassion, his characters must not be too perfect."

"O gently guide my pilgrim feet To find thy hermit cell; Where in some pure and equal sky Beneath thy soft indulgent eye The modest virtues dwell."

"It is to hope, tho hope were lost."

"Man is the nobler growth our realms supply, And souls are ripend in our northern sky."

"I read his awful name, emblazond high With golden letters on th illumind sky."

"Child of mortality, whence comest thou? Why is thy countenance sad, and why are thine eyes red with weeping?"

"It would be difficult to determine whether the age is growing better or worse; for I think our plays are growing like sermons, and our sermons like plays."

"This dead of midnight is the noon of thought, And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars."