Date: 1641

"Now admittedly, it is not necessary that I ever light upon any thought of God; but whenever I do choose to think of the first and supreme being, and bring forth the idea of God from the treasure house of my mind as it were, it is necessary that I attribute all perfections to him, even if I do no...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1657

Fancy is "The souls mint."

— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)

Date: 1683

"Invention, Memory, and Wit, should stay; / And all their Treasures in this Turrit lay."

— Shipman, Thomas (1632-1680)

Date: 1691

"Within the inner Closet of my Brain / Attend the nobler Members of my Train; / Invention, Master of my Mint, grows there, / And Memory, my faithful Treasurer."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1692

"This my lost Treasure to restore; / Thy magic vertues all apply, / Set up again my Bank-rupt memory. / Search every Cell and corner of my brain, / And bring my Fugitive again."

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

Date: 1710, 1714

"Thus I contend with Fancy and Opinion; and search the Mint and Foundery of Imagination. For here the Appetites and Desires are fabricated. Hence they derive their Privilege and Currency. If I can stop the Mischief here, and prevent false Coinage; I am safe."

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

Date: 1711

"And reflecting on what is transacted within us, it seems to me a very diverting Scene to think when we strive to recollect something that does not then occur; how nimbly those volatil Messengers of ours will beat through all the Paths, and hunt every Enclosure of the Organ set aside for thinking...

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

Date: 1729

"But as to the mysterious Structure of the Brain itself, and the more abstruse Oeconomy of it, that he knows nothing; but that the whole seems to be a medullary Substance, compactly treasur'd up in infinite Millions of imperceptible Cells, that dispos'd in an unconceivable Order, are cluster'd to...

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

Date: 1744

"In senses, which inherit earth and heavens; / Enjoy the various riches Nature yields; / Far nobler! give the riches they enjoy; / Give taste to fruits, and harmony to groves, / Their radiant beams to gold, and gold's bright sire; / Take-in, at once, the landscape of the world, / At a small inlet...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743, 1745

"From the court-mint, of hearts the current coin / The pulpit presses, but the pattern drives."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)