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Date: 1727

"Conscience draws the Picture of the Crime in Apparition just before him, and the Reflection, not the injur'd Soul, is the Spectre that haunts him: Nor can he need a worse Tormenter in this Life; whether there is a worse hereafter, or no, I do not pretend to determine. This is certainly 'a Worm t...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1727

"These abandon'd him to the Fury of an enrag'd Conscience, open'd the Sluices of the Soul, as I call them, and pour'd in a Flood of unsufferable Grief, letting loose those wild Beasts call'd Passions upon him, such as Rage, Anguish, Self-reproach, too late Repentance, and final Desperation, all t...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1733

"I see the Soul in pensive fit, / And mopeing like sick Linnet sit, / With dewy eye and moulting wing, / Unperch'd, averse to fly or sing."

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737) [pseud. Peter Drake, a Fisherman of Brentford]

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Date: 1734

"Hail, holy souls, no more confin'd / To limbs and bones that clog the mind; / Ye have escap'd the snares, and left the chains behind."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

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Date: 1737 (also 1738, 1743, reprinted 1754)

"In rainy days keep double guard, / Or spleen will surely be too hard, / Which, like those fish by sailors met, / Flies highest, while its wings are wet."

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737)

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Date: 1741

"I Might give another plain Simile to confirm the Truth of this [mnemonic method]. What Horse or Carriage can take up and bear away all the various, rude and unweildy Loppings of a branchy Tree at once? But if they are divided yet further so as to be laid close, and bound up in a more uniform Man...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

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Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"The high-born soul / Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing / Beneath its native quarry."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

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Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"From the blooming store / Of these auspicious fields, may I unblam'd / Transplant some living blossoms to adorn / My native clime: while far above the flight / Of fancy's plume aspiring, I unlock / The springs of ancient wisdom; while I join / Thy name, thrice honour'd! with the immortal praise ...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

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Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"That name indeed / Becomes the rosy breath of love; becomes / The radiant smiles of joy, the applauding hand / Of admiration: but the bitter shower / That sorrow sheds upon a brother's grave, / But the dumb palsy of nocturnal fear, / Or those consuming fires that gnaw the heart / Of panting indi...

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

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Date: 1744, 1772, 1795

"These the part / Perform of eager monitors, and goad / The soul more sharply than with points of steel, / Her enemies to shun or to resist."

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

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