Date: December 20, 1692; 1708

"I'm much concerned to hear you have your Health no better and, on this Occasion, cannot but deplore the great Losses the intellectual World, in all Ages, has suffer'd by, the strongest and soundest Minds possessing the most infirm and sickly Bodies. Certainly there must be some very powerful Cau...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: January 20, 1692/3; 1708

"But I perfectly agree with you concerning general Theories, that they are for the most part but a sort of waking Dreams, with which, when Men have warm'd their own Heads, they pass into unquestionable Truths, and then the ignorant World must be set right by them."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1708

"So that Spirit which comes by the Command of God, do's at all times act upon all Creatures, in some of which notwithstanding, there appears no Impression of it, but the reason of that is, because of their Incapacity into whom it is infus'd; of which kind are things inanimate which are fitly repr...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1708

"And then lastly, there are others, (represented by those Glasses, in our last comparison) in which the impressions of this Spirit are visible, and such we reckon all sorts of Animals. But then, as these smooth and polish'd Bodies which are of the same figure with the Sun [i.e. Spherical] do rece...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1708

"Now these; Nerves derive this Spirit from the Brain, which has it from the Heart (and contains abundance of Spirit, because it is divided into a great many partitions) and by what means soever any limb is depriv'd of his Spirit, it's Action ceases, and 'tis like a cast off Tool, not fit for use."

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1708

Now among other things of this kind which he discover'd, it appear'd to him that the Animal Spirit, which is Seal'd in the Heart (as we have mention'd before) must necessarily have some Quality superadded to its Corporeity, which rendred it capable of those wonderful Actions, different Sensations...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1708

"Now since that Animal Spirit which is seated in the Heart is of a most exact Temperature, as being finer than Earth and Water, and grosser than Fire and Air, it has the Nature of a Mean between them all, and which has no manifest Opposition to any of the Elements, and by this means is fitted to ...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1708

"To the second, as having an Animal Spirit, which had its Seat in the Heart, and was the first beginning of the Body and all its Faculties."

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1708

"And this misgrounded Conceit of his, had like to have firmly rooted itself in his Mind, unless God had pursu'd him with his Mercy, and directed him by his gracious Guidance; and then he perceiv'd that it arose from the Relicks of that Obscurity which is natural to Body, and the Dregs of sensible...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: September 6, 1695; 1708

"To be reveng'd on you therefore for putting my Brains into such a Ferment, I have resolved to be so impertinent as to send you the Result of my Meditations upon the Subject."

— Synge, Edward (1659-1741)