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Date: 380-360 B.C.

"And purification, as we saw some time ago in our discussion, consists in separating the soul as much as possible from the body, and accustoming it to withdraw from all contact with the body and concentrate itself by itself, and to have its dwelling, so far as it can, both now and in the future, ...

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

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Date: 380-360 B.C.

"Every seeker after wisdom knows that up to the time when philosophy takes it over his soul is a helpless prisoner, chained hand and foot in the body, compelled to view reality not directly but only through its prison bars, and wallowing in utter ignorance."

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

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Date: 1607

"Now for the body, as well it leuils at it: for those who distemper and misdiet them selues with vntimely and vnwonted surfeting, who make their bodies the noysome sepulchers of their soules, not considering the estate of their enfeebled body what will be accordant to it, not waighing their compl...

— Walkington, Thomas (b. c. 1575, d. 1621)

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Date: 1615

"From the brain, turn the eye of thy mind to the gates of the Sun, and Windows of the soul, I mean the eyes, and there behold the brightness of the glittering Crystal, the purity and neat cleanness of the watery and glassy humors, the delicate and fine texture of the Tunicles, and the wonderfull ...

— Crooke, Helkiah (1576-1648)

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Date: 1652

"He did not antedate his own knowledge, nor remember the several postures of his soul, and the famous exploits of his minde before he was born; but plainly profest that his understanding came naked into the world. He shews you an [...], an abrasa tabula, a virgin-soul espousing it self to the bod...

— Culverwell, Nathanael (bap. 1619, d. 1651)

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Date: 1667

"It's to the Castle of the Heart a Wall / Of Brass: it is a Christians coat of Mail, / How many do for want of it miscarry!"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

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Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell / Of fancy, my internal sight"

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

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Date: 1692

"Suspence that torture of the Mind, / Long had our Thoughts in doubts dark Cave confin'd"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

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Date: 1697

"St. Austin names Memory the Soul's Belly or Storehouse, or the Receptacle of the Mind, because it is appointed to receive and lay up as in a Treasury, those things that may be for our Benefit and Advantage."

— D'Assigny, Marius (1643-1717)

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Date: 1700, 1702

"Her thoughtful Soul, labours with some event / Of high import, which bustles like an Embryo / In its dark Room, and longs to be disclos'd."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.