Date: 1692

"[T]he Explanation whereof is allowed by all men as satisfactory, 'tis this, in Tab. 41. Fig. 2. the Image a b of the Object A B is painted on the Retina inverted, and yet the Eye (or rather the Soul by means of the Eye) sees the Object erect and in its natural Posture."

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: January 1739

"On the other hand, impressions and passions are susceptible of an entire union, and, like colours, may be blended so perfectly together, that each of them may lose itself, and contribute only to vary that uniform impression which arises from the whole."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: September 17, 1739

"There are different ways of examining the Mind as well as the Body. One may consider it either as an Anatomist or as a Painter; either to discover its most secret Springs & Principles or to describe the Grace & Beauty of its Actions."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"It [the imagination] can feign a train of events, with all the appearance of reality, ascribe to them a particular time and place, conceive them as existent, and paint them out to itself with every circumstance, that belongs to any historical fact, which it believes with the greatest certainty."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"This impression of my senses immediately conveys my thought to the person, together with all the surrounding objects. I paint them out to myself as existing at present, with the same qualities and relations, of which I formerly knew them possessed."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1781

"Which, like a skilful artist, goes to work upon the materials furnished by the senses; comparing selecting, analysing, and abstracting; till by placing them in different points of view their fitness, relations, and dependencies are seen."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781

"But the difference is much greater between the ideas of sense, the materials upon which the mind first begins its work, and the truths produced by its operations, than between the rough marble, and the statue formed by the skill of PHIDIAS."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781

"Let matter then be allowed to furnish the first materials; the enlightened mind, which by its operations upon these discovers truth, and pursues it through all its distant connections, must have powers as far superiour to that which gave the first impression, as PHIDIAS is superiour to the marble."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)