Date: 1731

"But indeed this Opinion attributes as much Activity to the Mind, if at least the Agent Intelligence be a Part of it, as ours doth; as he would attribute as much Activity to the Sun, that should say the Sun had a Power of educing Light out of Night or the dark Air, as he that should say the Sun h...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"So if the Knowledge of Corporeal Things were but a Secondary and Derivative Result from Sense, (though it cannot be conceived that the Passion of Sense should ray upon the Intellect, so as to beget a Secondary Passion there, any more than one Shadow should cast another) then Knowledge would be m...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Now I observe that it is so far from being true, that all our Objective Cogitations or Ideas are Corporeal Effluxes or Radiations from Corporeal Things without, or impressed upon the Soul from them in a gross Corporeal Manner, as a Signature or Stamp is imprinted by a Seal upon a piece of Wax or...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues t...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"And I have in like manner in this antecedent Discourse, endeavoured to shew that Wisdom, Knowledge, Mind and Intellect, are no thin Shadows or Images of corporeal and sensible Things, nor do result secondarily out of Matter and Body, and from the Activity and Impressions thereof; but have an ind...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1732

"But this is what I foresaw, a flood of light let in at once upon the mind being apt to dazzle and disorder, rather than enlighten it."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1733

Sights may be perform'd, "illusive scene! / By magick lantern of the spleen"

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737) [pseud. Peter Drake, a Fisherman of Brentford]

Date: 1733-4

"Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r; / As Heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sowr"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734, 1753

"Were it a crime in flashing souls, to rise, / And strike each other thro' the meeting eyes; / Those op'ning windows had not let in light, / Nor stream'd ideas out, to voice the sight."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1734

"The Mind, or Understanding, is consider'd as a Principle of Light or Discerning; as the Senses and Affections are supposed to be blind."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)