Date: 1641

"But I see what it is: my mind enjoys wandering off and will not yet submit to being restrained within the bounds of truth. Very well then; just this once let us give it a completely free rein, so that after a while, when it is time to tighten the reins, it may more readily submit to being curbed."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1651, 1668

"And on the contrary, metaphors, and senseless and ambiguous words, are like ignes fatui; and reasoning upon them is wandering amongst innumerable absurdities; and their end, contention and sedition, or contempt."

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651

"'Tis but the Body that blind Fortunes spight / Can chain to Earth; the nobler Soul doth slight / Her servill Bonds, and takes to Heaven her flight."

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: 1642, 1655, 1668

"My eye, which swift as thought contracts the space / That lies between, and first salutes the place / Crown'd with that sacred pile, so vast, so high, / That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or sky, / Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud / Aspiring mountain, or descending cloud, / Pauls, the...

— Denham, John, Sir (1615-1669)

Date: 1642, 1655, 1668

"Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight, / By taking wing from thy auspicious height) / Through untrac't ways, and aery paths I fly, / More boundless in my Fancy than my eie."

— Denham, John, Sir (1615-1669)

Date: 1657

Fancy is "The roving, pregnant, busie, teeming sence."

— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)

Date: 1657

The fancy is a "Boundlesse, restlesse faculty, free from all engagements, diggs without spade, sails without Ships, Flies without wings, builds without charges, fights without bloodshed, in a moment striding from the Center to the circumference of the world, by a kind of omnipotency creating and ...

— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)