Date: 1714

"Have you examin'd / Into your inmost Heart, and try'd at leisure / The several secret Springs that move the Passions? / Has Mercy fix'd her Empire there so sure, / That Wrath and Vengeance never may return?"

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1715

"Musick's the Spring made by Divinest Art, / To move the Vital Machine of Man's Heart, / And circulate with Pow'r thro' ev'ry Part."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1719

"There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are set a going by some Object in View, or be it some Object, though not in View, yet render'd present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager Embrac...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1722

"There is nothing so absurd, so surfeiting, so ridiculous as a Man heated by Wine in his Head, and a wicked Gust in his Inclination together; he is in the possession of two Devils at once, and can no more govern himself by his Reason than a Mill can Grind without Water."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1723

"Can'st say what diff'rent Turns the Spirits take, / When they of diff'rent Kinds Impressions make; / What vital Springs those Spirits in their Flight / Strike to cause Torment, what to give Delight."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1724

"The sudden Gusts of these Passions being thus accounted for, when they become extreme they drive about the Blood with such a Hurricane, that Nature is overset, like a Mill by a Flood: So that what drove it only quicker round before, now intirely stops it, and renders the Countenance pale and gha...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

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."

— Glanvil, John (1664-1735)

Date: 1725

"So delicate's the Texture of her Brain, / We wish it less refin'd, and nearer Man; / For weak's the Clock with over-curious Springs, / And frail the Voice that too divinely sings"

— Sterling, James

Date: September 10, 1726

"First then I lay down, as an undeniable Truth, that we have in common with other Animals a certain Machine of a curious and exquisite Workmanship, the principal Springs whereof are Imagination and Memory."

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

Date: September 10, 1726

"To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occ...

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)