Date: 1760-7

"A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho' I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind, and my opinion rather is, that there is something in it more of the manner of elect...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"The more my uncle Toby pored over his map, the more he took a liking to it;--by the same process and electrical assimilation, as I told you, thro' which I ween the souls of connoisseurs themselves, by long friction and incumbition, have the happiness, at length, to get all be-virtu'd,--...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: Published serially, 1765-1770

"These ever apparent Ensigns of so dearly purchased Benefits shall inevitably attract the Wills of all Creatures, they shall cause all Hearts and Affections to rush and cleave to him, as Steel Dust rushes to Adamant, and as Spokes stick in the Nave whereon they are centred."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1777

"My father did not then perceive this; it was not till he waited on Montauban, that the force of it struck his mind."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"If they say, that affection is a mere involuntary impulse, neither waiting the decisions of reason, or the dissuasive of prudence, do they not in reality degrade us to machines, which are blindly actuated by some uncontrollable power?"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1794

"There was a magnetical sympathy between me and my patron"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1799

"His emotion seemed to communicate itself, with an electrical rapidity, to my heart."

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)

Date: 1800

Thoughts may be kept in "perpetual motion"

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)

Date: 1800

"A sort of electrical sympathy pervaded my companion, and terror and anguish were strongly manifested in the glances which she sometimes stole at me."

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)

Date: 1854

"All closely imprisoned forces rend and destroy. The air that would be healthful to the earth, the water that would enrich it, the heat that would ripen it, tear it when caged up. So in her bosom even now; the strongest qualities she possessed, long turned upon themselves, became a heap of obdura...

— Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)