Date: 1700

"The Passions still predominant will rule, / Ungovern'd, rude, not bred in Reason's School."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"On these [passions] the Soul, as on some Flowing Tide, / Must sit, and on the raging Billows Ride, / Hurry'd away, for how can be withstood / Th' Impetuous Torrent of the boiling Blood?"

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"What's all the noisy Jargon of the Schools, / But idle Nonsense of laborious Fools, / Who fetter Reason with perplexing Rules."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Who travels Scotus swelling Tomes shall find / A Cloud of Darkness rising on the Mind."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"We seldome use our Liberty aright, / Nor Judge of Things by Universal Light; / Our Prepossessions and Affections bind / The Soul in Chains, and Lord it o're the Mind."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Reason, 'tis true, shou'd over Sense Preside, / Correct our Notions, and our Judgment Guide; / But false Opinions, rooted in the Mind, / Hoodwink the Soul, and keep our Reason Blind."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns, / A languid Flame that glows and dyes by Turns; / We see't a while, and but a little Way, / We Travel by its Light as Men by Day."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"But quickly Dying, [reason] forsakes us soon, / Like Morning Stars, that never stay till Noon."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Better the Mind no Notions had retain'd, / But still a fair Unwritten Blank remain'd; / For now, who Truth from Falshood wou'd discern; / must first disrobe the Mind, and all Unlearn."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

The "Trading Mind" must voyage over an Ocean, but "Resisting Rocks oppose th' Inquiring Soul, / And adverse Waves retard it as they Rowl."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)