Date: 1737

"You see 'tis with weak heads as with weak stomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read floats upon the surface of their mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1739-40

"The understanding, like the eye (says Mr. Locke), whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1739

"Thy wounds upon my heart impress, / Nor [a]ught shall the loved stamp efface"

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"The Passion I have for you, and your Obstinacy, have constrained me to act by you in a manner that I know will occasion you great Trouble and Fatigue, both of Mind and Body"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

One's mind may be "big with some important Meaning"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"That he might, for his own dear sake, become a Partaker, a Partner in them; and then, thought I, when we can Hand in Hand, Heart in Heart, one Spirit, as well as one Flesh, join in the same Closet, in the same Prayers and Thanksgivings, what an happy Creature shall I be!"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741

"Without Memory the Soul of Man would be but a poor destitute naked Being, with an everlasting Blank spread over it, except the fleeting ideas of the present Moment."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1741

"What tho' you damn one Offspring of his Brain? / Prolific Dullness quickly spawns again: / This Monster crush'd, another strait appears, / Head after Head the sprouting Hydra rears"

— Duck, Stephen (1705-1756)

Date: 1741

"For Thou who, faulty, wrong'st another's Fame, / Howe'er so great and dignify'd thy Name, / The Muse shall drag thee forth to publick Shame; / Pluck the fair Feathers from thy Swan-skin Heart, / And shew thee black and guileful as thou art."

— Miller, James (1704-1744)

Date: 1741

"Such practices may happen to discourage and jade the Mind by an Attempt above its Power, it may balk the Understanding, and create an Aversion to future Diligence, and perhaps by Despair may forbid the Pursuit of that subject for ever afterwards; as a Limb over-strained by lifting a Weight above...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)