Date: 1709, 1810

"When I view my spacious soul, / And survey myself awhole, / And enjoy myself alone, / I'm a kingdom of my own."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1710, 1714

"This indeed is but too certain; That as long as we enjoy a Mind; as long as we have Appetites and Sense, the Fancys of all kinds will be hard at work; and whether we are in company, or alone, they must range still, and be active. They must have their Field. The Question is, Whether they shall ha...

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

Date: 1712

"These Out-guards of the Mind are sent abroad, / And still patrolling beat the neighb'ring Road: / Or to the Parts remote obedient fly, / Keep Posts advanc'd, and on the Frontier lye."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"But other Spirits govern'd by the Will / Shoot thro' their Tracks, and distant Muscles fill. / This Sov'raign by his arbitrary Nod / Restrains, or sends his Ministers abroad."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"O'er Ministerial Senses [the soul] does preside, / To all their various Provinces divide, / Each Member move, and ev'ry Motion guide."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Which by her secret uncontested Nod / Her Messengers the Spirits sends abroad, / Thro' ev'ry nervous Pass, and ev'ry vital Road. / To fetch from ev'ry distant Part a Train, / Of outward Objects to enrich the Brain."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1742

"While o'er my limbs Sleep's soft dominion spread, / What though my soul fantastic measures trod / O'er fairy fields; or mourn'd along the gloom / Of pathless woods; or, down the craggy steep / Hurl'd headlong, swam with pain the mantled pool; / Or scaled the cliff; or danced on hollow winds, / W...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"TRAGEDY and COMEDY; the first fixes her Empire on the Passions, and the more exalted Contractions and Dilations of the Heart; the last, tho' not inferior (quotidem Science) holds her Rule over the less enobled Qualities and Districts of human Nature, which are call'd the Humours."

— Garrick, David (1717-1779)

Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"Thus he learns / Their birth and fortunes; how allied they haunt / The avenues of sense; what laws direct / Their union; and what various discords rise, / Or fix'd or casual: which when his clear thought / Retains and when his faithful words express, / That living image of the external scene, / ...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: Saturday, September 15, 1750

"The first effect of this meditation is, that it furnishes a new employment for the mind, and engages the passions on remoter objects; as kings have sometimes freed themselves from a subject too haughty to be governed and too powerful to be crushed, by posting him in a distant province, till his ...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)