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Date: 1691

"The Brain, which is the principle of all Sense and Motion, the Fountain of the Animal Spirits, the Chief Seat and Palace Royal of the Soul; upon whose security depends whatever Privilege belongs to us as Sensitive or Rational Creatures."

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

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Date: 1692

"This my lost Treasure to restore; / Thy magic vertues all apply, / Set up again my Bank-rupt memory. / Search every Cell and corner of my brain, / And bring my Fugitive again."

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

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Date: 1692

"Suspence that torture of the Mind, / Long had our Thoughts in doubts dark Cave confin'd"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

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Date: 1693

"No, I will break this House of Clay, / Which clogs my fleeter Thoughts and Mind."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

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Date: 1697

"Thro' Helm and Skull the Fauchion passage found, / Cleft thro' the Brain, and ruin'd with the Wound / The curious Imag'ry by Fancy wrought, / All Mem'ry's Cells, and all the Moulds of Thought."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

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Date: 1697

"St. Austin names Memory the Soul's Belly or Storehouse, or the Receptacle of the Mind, because it is appointed to receive and lay up as in a Treasury, those things that may be for our Benefit and Advantage."

— D'Assigny, Marius (1643-1717)

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Date: 1697

"All the Alarms and Troubles of the Soul blot out the Ideas that are already entertain'd, and hinder others from coming in. They obstruct all the Passages; and the Croud of thoughts that in such cases arise is a great hindrance to Memory."

— D'Assigny, Marius (1643-1717)

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Date: 1698

"Nay, such Gentlemen would be much offended their Houses should not be clean Swept, and Garnish'd; yet, they are not, in the least, concern'd, that Cobwebs should hang in the Windows of their Intellect, and Dusty Ignorance dim and blear the Sight of the Noble Inhabitant."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

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Date: 1698

"For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundati...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

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Date: 1704

"Some again think that when our earthly tabernacles are disordered and desolate, shaken and out of repair, the spirit delights to dwell within them, as houses are said to be haunted, when they are forsaken and gone to decay."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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