Date: 1686, 1689, 1697
"'Tis so many times in the capacities of Youth: they who can receive any impression like the Virgin-wax, will as easily suffer a defacement unless it be hardned and matur'd by Time: whereas others who are hard to be wrought upon like Steel, retain the Images which are Engraven on them with much m...
preview | full record— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)
Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706
"I shall not here enquire, though it may seem probable, that the Constitution of the Body does sometimes influence the Memory; since we oftentimes find a Disease quite strip the Mind of all its Ideas, and the flames of a Fever, in a few days, calcine all those Images to dust and confusion, which ...
preview | full record— Locke, John (1632-1704)
Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706
"Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them."
preview | full record— Locke, John (1632-1704)
Date: 1692
"Our enticing Alurements are despised by Petrified Hearts, and impenetrable to the Impressions of amorous Passion. With Souls of Adamant they correspond with our Lives, encount'ring our Affections with peevish and wayward Scorn."
preview | full record— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)
Date: 1694
"Thy mighty Soul, stamp'd of Heav'n's noblest Coin, / More Pure than Gold, more Precious and Divine, / Does in thy Everlasting Vertues shine."
preview | full record— Cobb, Samuel (bap. 1675, d. 1713)
Date: 1697
"At such Reflections do's not Nature start, / And try at every Spring to touch your Heart? / Do's not soft Pity's fire begin to burn, / Do not your yearning Bowels in you turn? / In such a case Breasts arm'd with temper'd Steel / And Hearts of Marble, should impression feel."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1715
"THEN as to Correction, the Heart being hardned, as before, by Opinion and Practice, and especially in a Belief that he ought not to be corrected, the Rod of Correction has a different Effect; for as the Blow of a Stripe makes an Impression on the Heart of a Child, as stamping a Seal does upon th...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1723
"If offer'd in a mild and tim'rous Tone, / Nor urg'd and press'd, its [Counsel's] feeble Force is gone, / And leaves no more Impressions on the Mind, / Than Rocks receive from a soft Breeze of Wind."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: February 22, 1723
"Nature on their unpolish'd marble prints / Much tenderer sentiments, than some can boast / Who call them barbarous."
preview | full record— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)
Date: 1731
"Now I observe that it is so far from being true, that all our Objective Cogitations or Ideas are Corporeal Effluxes or Radiations from Corporeal Things without, or impressed upon the Soul from them in a gross Corporeal Manner, as a Signature or Stamp is imprinted by a Seal upon a piece of Wax or...
preview | full record— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)