Date: 1660, 1676
"And therefore Conscience is called [...] The Household Guardian, The Domestick God, The Spirit or Angel of the place: and when we call God to witness, we only mean, that our conscience is right, and that God and Gods vicar, our conscience, knows it."
preview | full record— Taylor, Jeremy (bap. 1613, 1667)
Date: 1664
"And finally, when a rational soul is present in this machine it will have its principal seat in the brain, and reside there like the fountain-keeper who must be stationed at the tanks to which the fountain's pipes return if he wants to produce, or prevent, or change their movements in some way."
preview | full record— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Date: 1686, 1689, 1697
"As soon as ever the Parts begin to be form'd by Nature, this Animal and active Principle begins to exert its Heat and Force, being lodged in the Heart as in the Centre of the Body, from whence, as the Vessels begin also to be form'd, it distributes it self towards the extreme Regions, communicat...
preview | full record— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)
Date: 1698
"Nay, such Gentlemen would be much offended their Houses should not be clean Swept, and Garnish'd; yet, they are not, in the least, concern'd, that Cobwebs should hang in the Windows of their Intellect, and Dusty Ignorance dim and blear the Sight of the Noble Inhabitant."
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1710, 1714
"For Appetite, which is elder Brother to Reason, being the Lad of stronger Growth, is sure, on every contest, to take the advantage of drawing all to his own side."
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1710, 1714
"And Will, so highly boasted, is but at best, a Foot-Ball or Top between these Youngsters [Appetite and Reason], who prove very unfortunately match'd; till the youngest, instead of now and then a Kick or Lash bestow'd to little purpose, forsakes the Ball or Top it-self, and begins to lay about hi...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1710, 1714
"Come not in a Troop, (ye Fancys!) Bring not your Objects crouding, to confound the Sight. But let me examine your Worth and Weight distinctly."
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1710, 1714
"Every Man indeed who is not absolutely beside himself, must of necessity hold his Fancys under some kind of Discipline and Management."
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1710, 1714
"'Tis easy to bring the Hero's Case home to our-selves; and see, in the ordinary Circumstances of Life, how Love, Ambition, and the gayer Tribe of Fancys (as well as the gloomy and dark Specters of another sort) prevail over our Mind, 'Tis easy to observe how they work on us, when we refuse to be...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1711
"We must consider the Soul as the Skill of an Artificer, whilst the Organs of the Body are her Tools; for as the Body and its most minute Spirits are wholly insignificant, and cannot perform that Operation which we call thinking without the Soul more than the Tools of an Artificer, can do anythin...
preview | full record— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)