Date: From Saturd. Dec. 24. to Tuesd. Dec. 27. 1709

"Besides that, the Slackening and Unbending our Minds on some Occasions, makes them exert themselves with greater Vigour and Alacrity, when they return to their proper and natural State."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Thursd. Febr. 9. to Saturd. Febr. 11. 1710

"Their Conversation is a kind of Preparative for Sleep: It takes the Mind down from its Abstractions, leads it into the familiar Traces of Thought, and lulls it into that State of Tranquility, which is the Condition of a thinking Man when he is but half awake."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Thursd. Febr. 9. to Saturd. Febr. 11. 1710

"The Mind of Man in a long Life will become a Magazine of Wisdom or Folly, and will consequently discharge it self in something impertinent or improving."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Saturd. Febr. 25. to Tuesd. Febr. 28. 1710

"But indeed I must do my Female Readers the Justice to own, that their tender Hearts are much more susceptible of good Impressions, than the Minds of the other Sex."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Saturd. March 11. to Tuesd. March 14. 1710

"It was then very pleasant to look into the Hearts of the whole Company; for the Balls of Sight are so form'd, that one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to another to read his Heart with."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Thursday May 18. to Saturday May 20. 1710

"By this Means, a disordered Mind, like a broken Limb, will recover its Strength by the sole Benefit of being out of Use, and lying without Motion."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Tuesday May 23. to Thursday May 25. 1710

"This is Conquest in the Philosophick Sense; but the Empire over our selves is, methinks, no less laudable in common Life, where the whole Tenour of a Man's Carriage is in Subservience to his own Reason, and Conformity both to the good Sense and Inclination of other Men."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Tuesday May 30. to Thursday June 1. 1710

"In a Word, the Beauties and the Charms of Nature and of Art court all my Faculties, refresh the Fibres of the Brain, and smooth every Avenue of Thought. What pleasing Meditations, what agreeable Wanderings of the Mind, and what delicious Slumbers, have I enjoyed here?"

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Saturday June 3. to Tuesday June 6. 1710

"The Mind in Infancy is, methinks, like the Body in Embrio, and receives Impressions so forcible, that they are as hard to be removed by Reason, as any Mark with which a Child is born is to be taken away by any future Application."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Thursday June 22. to Saturday June 24. 1710

"The elder, who is a Scholar, showed from his Infancy a Propensity to polite Studies, and has made a suitable Progress in Literature; but his Learning is so well woven into his Mind, that from the Impressions of it, he seems rather to have contracted an Habit of Life, than Manner of Discourse."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)