Date: 1725
"In Pieces took here we are shewn the whole / Clock-work and Mechanism of the Soul; / May see the Movements, Labyrinths, and Strings, / Its Wires, and Wheels, and Balances, and Springs; / How 'tis wound up to its full Height, and then / What checks, and stops, and settles it again."
preview | full record— Glanvil, John (1664-1735)
Date: 1734
"We see and feel these limbs, and this flesh of ours; we are acquainted at least with the outside of this animal machine, and sometimes call it ourselves, though philosophy and reason would rather say, it is our house or tabernacle, because we possess it, or dwell in it: it is our en...
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: January 1739
"A trivial good may, from certain circumstances, produce a desire superior to what arises from the greatest and most valuable enjoyment; nor is there any thing more extraordinary in this, than in mechanics to see one pound weight raise up a hundred by the advantage of its situation."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1773
"Strong Passions draw, like Horses that are strong, / The Body-Coach of Flesh and Blood along; / While subtle Reason, with each Rein in Hand, / Sits on the Box, and has them at Command; / Rais'd up aloft, to see and to be seen, / Judges the Track, and guides the gay Machine."
preview | full record— Byrom, John (1692-1763)
Date: 1773
"They who are loud in human Reason's Praise, / And celebrate the Drivers of our Days, / Seem to suppose, by their continual Bawl, / That Passions, Reason, and Machine, is all / To them the Windows are drawn up, and clear / Nothing that does not outwardly appear."
preview | full record— Byrom, John (1692-1763)