Date: 1656

"Though there be no formal commonwealth or family either in the body or in the soul of man, yet there is a subordination in the body, of the inferior members to the head; there is a subordination in the soul, of the inferior faculties to the rational will." [Metaphor is Bramhall's]

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1657

The fancy is "Commanding Empress of the brain, ubiquitary, faculty."

— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)

Date: 1658

In "Man's head ... madam Reason is enthron'd, her grace / Reignes like an Empress in the highest place."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1658

"My lady Will, resideth in the brain; / The Judgment there, there doth Minerva raigne"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1659

If a passion may usurp the intellectual faculties, one may "no more be able to govene" himself than "a little Infant or a mad-man to hold the reynes of a Common-wealth"

— Tubbe, Henry (1618-1655)

Date: 1659

"And therefore it is the meer Imperium of our Soule that does determine the Spirits to this Muscle rather then the other, and holds them there in despite of externall force."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"But this makes little to the clearing of the manner of their descent ... which cannot be better understood, then by considering their Union with the Body generated, or indeed with any kinde of Body whatever, where the Soul is held captive, and cannot quit her self thereof by the free imperium of...

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"But no man can when he pleases pass out of his Body thus, by the Imperium of his Will, no more then he can walk in his Sleep: For this capacity is pressed down more deep into the lower life of the Soul, whither neither the Liberty of Will, nor free Imagination can reach."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"The Soul can neither impart to nor take away from the Matter of her Vehicle of Air any considerable degree of Motion, but yet can direct the particles moved which way she pleases by the Imperium of her Will."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"But the difficulty now is, whether that Humane shape that the Soul transforms her Vehicle into, be simply the effect of the Imperium of her Will over the Matter she actuates, or that her Will may be in some measure limited or circumscribed in its effect by a concomitant exertion of the Plastick ...

— More, Henry (1614-1687)