Date: 1716

"Let thy Studies [he writes] be as free as thy Thoughts and Contemplations: but fly not only upon the wings of Imagination."

— Browne, Sir Thomas (1605-1682)

Date: 1724

"But in its proper Vacuity, and being freed from these Letts and Impediments, it [the soul] would mount towards its Original, like an Eagle toward the Sun."

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

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)

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)

Date: 1729

"We have a faint Image of these Operations in Hawking: For Memory may be justly compar'd to the Dog that beats the Field, or the Wood, and that starts the Game; Imagination to the Falcon that clips it upon its Pinions after it; and Judgment to the Falconer, who directs the Flight, and who governs...

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

Date: 1729

"Among the helluones librorum, the Cormorants of Books, there are wretched Reasoners, that have canine Appetites, and no Digestion."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

Date: 1731

"And the serious Consideration hereof should make us very careful how we let the Reins loose to that Passive Irrational Part of our Soul, which knows no Bounds nor Measures, lest thereby we unawares precipitate and plunge our selves headlong into the most sad and deplorable Condition that is imag...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1704-5; 1731

"Most men seem to place it in being allowed to let loose the Reins to all their Appetites and Passions without controul; to be under no restraint either from the Laws of Men, or from the Fear of God."

— Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729)

Date: 1732

"But the free-thinker, with a vigorous flight of thought, breaks through those airy springes, and asserts his original independency."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"He that wants the proper materials of thought, may think and meditate for ever to no purpose: those cobwebs spun by scholars out of their own brains being alike unserviceable, either for use or ornament."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)