Date: 1708, 1714

"Methinks, my Lord, it wou'd be well for us, if before we ascended into the higher Regions of Divinity, we wou'd vouchsafe to descend a little into ourselves, and bestow some poor Thoughts upon plain honest Morals."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"'Tis wonderful indeed; and yet great Souls, / By Nature half divine, soar to the Stars, / And hold a near Acquaintance with the Gods."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"No!--'tis my Glory that the Christian Light / Has dawn'd, like Day, upon my darker Mind, / And taught my Soul the noblest use of Reason; / Taught her to soar aloft, to search, to know / The vast eternal Fountain of her Being."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Fools that we are! to vex the lab'ring Brain, / And waste decaying Nature thus with Thought; / To keep the weary Spirits waking still; / To goad and drive 'em in eternal Rounds / Of restless wracking Care; 'tis all in vain. / Blind Goddess Chance! henceforth I follow thee."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Fly swift as Thought, and set her free this Moment, / Or by my injur'd Love, a Name more sacred / Than all your Function knows, your Gods and you, / Your Temples, Altars, and your painted Shrines, / Your holy Trumpery shall blaze together."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Call back your Thoughts from each deluding Passion, / And wing your parting Soul for her last Flight."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Tho' at the Musick of thy Voice, I own, / My Soul is husht, it sinks into a Calm, / And takes sure Omen of its Peace from thee."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Perhaps, indeed, such are your wandring Brains, / Our Author might haue spar'd his Tragick Pains."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: April 26, 1695; 1708

"Meditating by one's self is like digging in the Mine; it often, perhaps, brings up maiden Earth, which never came near the Light before; but whether it contain any Metal in it, is never so well tried as in Conversation with a knowing judicious Friend, who carries about him the true Touch-stone, ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: March 30, 1696; 1708

"Nay, I so far incline to comply with your Desires, that I every now and then lay by some Materials for it, as they occasionally occur in the Rovings of my Mind."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)