Date: 1729
"But as to the mysterious Structure of the Brain itself, and the more abstruse Oeconomy of it, that he knows nothing; but that the whole seems to be a medullary Substance, compactly treasur'd up in infinite Millions of imperceptible Cells, that dispos'd in an unconceivable Order, are cluster'd to...
preview | full record— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)
Date: 1730
"And when with these the serious thought is foil'd, / We, shifting for relief, would play the shapes / Of frolic fancy; and incessant form / Unnumber'd pictures, fleeting o'er the brain / Yet rapid still renew'd, and pour'd immense / Into the mind, unbounded without space."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1730
"By a Mind, laudably filled with a Zeal for his Country's Safety, every Hint, that infers its Danger, should be thought of the utmost Importance."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1731
"When in a great Throng or Crowd of People, a Man looking round about meets with innumerable strange Faces, that he never saw before in all his Life, and at last chances to espy the Face of one Old Friend or Acquaintance, which he had not seen or thought of many Years before; he would be said in ...
preview | full record— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)
Date: 1731
"For which Cause that wise Philosopher Socrates altogether shunned that Dictating and Dogmatical Way of Teaching used by the Sophisters of that Age, and chose rather an Aporetical and Obstetricious Method; because Knowledge was not to be poured into the Soul like Liquor, but rather to be invited ...
preview | full record— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)
Date: June 22, 1731
"A heavy Melancholy clouds my Spirits; my Imagination is fill'd with gashly Forms of dreary Graves, and Bodies chang'd by Death,--when the pale lengthen'd Visage attracks each weeping Eye,--and fills the musing Soul, at once, with Grief and Horror, Pity and Aversion."
preview | full record— Lillo, George (1691/3-1739)
Date: 1732
"Trace it to the fountain-head, and you shall not find that you had it by any of your senses, the only true means of discovering what is real and substantial in nature: you will find it lying amongst other old lumber in some obscure corner of the imagination, the proper receptacle of visions, fan...
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1733
"But what they demand is, any ideas of them as different from all the ideas and conceptions of things sensible and human, as these are from things imperceptible and divine: and accordingly they tell you that when they look inward for such ideas to annex to the terms, their mind is an empty void; ...
preview | full record— Browne, Peter (d. 1735)
Date: 1734
"Search well, my soul, thro' all the dark recesses / Of nature and self-love, the plies, the folds, / And hollow winding caverns of the heart, / Where flattery hides our sins."
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1734
"If it is for the most part but a Magazine of Trash, the Gift itself is still to be esteemed; and a Man has his own bad choice to blame, for making such a Collection."
preview | full record— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)