Date: 1700

"What does the World think of this holding up the Buckler, they put but a bad Construction upon it, and say that his Conscience is Ulcerated, that you cannot touch any String, but it will answer to some painful place."

— Brown, Thomas (bap. 1663, d. 1704)

Date: 1708, 1714

"They are certainly as ill Physicians in the Body-Politick, who wou'd needs be tampering with these mental Eruptions; and under the specious pretence of healing this Itch of Superstition, and saving Souls from the Contagion of Enthusiasm, shou'd set all Nature in an uproar, and turn a few innocen...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"Reflection is the last and greatest Bliss: / When turning backwards with inverted Eyes, / The Soul it self and all its Charms, surveys, / The deep Impressions of Coelestial Grace / And Image of the Godhead."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1712

"Our Operator, before he engaged in this Visionary Dissection, told us, that there was nothing in his Art more difficult than to lay open the Heart of a Coquet, by reason of the many Labyrinths and Recesses which are to be found in it, and which do not appear in the Heart of any other Animal."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1712

"When Man with Reason dignify'd is born, / No Images his naked Mind adorn: / No Sciences or Arts enrich his Brain, / Nor Fancy yet displays her pictur'd Train."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1714, 1723

"The passing Minds their former Load sustain, / Are born, tho' loth, and sheath'd in Flesh again."

— Hughes, Jabez (1685-1731)

Date: 1715

"'Twas Zeno's Advice to Dip the Tongue in the Mind before one should Speak."

— Bulstrode, Richard, Sir (1610-1711)

Date: 1722

"I had now such a Load on my Mind that it kept me perpetually waking."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: Monday, June 8. 1724.

"I am, therefore, inclinable, since very much of my Practice will lie among the Ladies, to call myself a Mind-Midwife: Insinuating, by that Hint, That I can see 'em as safely brought to Bed of their Affectation, and other spiritual Conceptions, as they can be assisted, in their Matrimonal Pregnan...

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: Monday, June 22. 1724

"I express myself, with much Seriousness, when I declare, as I here do, that I know not one Science, so Advantageous in Theory, as Mr. Jyngle's New System of Mind Midwifery."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)