Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

Hibernicus's Letters, No. 76 [Dublin Weekly Journal]

September 10, 1726

"First then I lay down, as an undeniable Truth, that we have in common with other Animals a certain Machine of a curious and exquisite Workmanship, the principal Springs whereof are Imagination and Memory."

First then I lay down, as an undeniable Truth, that we have in common with other Animals a certain Machine of a curious and exquisite Workmanship, the principal Springs whereof are Imagination and Memory. If we carefully examine this Machine, we shall find it exactly the same in Men and Beasts, every thing being done in both in a manner merely passive and necessary. To be convinced of this, let us but consider that all outward Objects do, by the exterior Organs of Sensation, send into the Brain certain Images, which meeting with the animal Spirits aptly disposed, excite in the Machine some determined Motion or other. The Machine itself is incapable of any Choice, but is always actuated by the strongest Impression, which generally depends on the Disposition it is in at the Very Instant it receives it.
(p. 185)

Machine::Springs

Reading Dennis Todd's Imagining Monsters (University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 137.

At least 4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1726, 1729, 1734).

The Dublin Weekly Journal ran from 3 April 1725 to 25 March 1727.

Text from James Arbuckle, A Collection of Letters and Essays on Several Subjects: Lately Publish'd in the Dublin Journal. In Two Volumes (London: Printed by J. Darby and T. Browne, 1729). <Link to vol. 2 in Google Books>

Republished as Hibernicus's Letters: or, a Philosophical Miscellany (London: Printed for J. Clark, T. Hatchet, E. Symon, 1734). <Link to ECCO>

07/08/2013