Date: November 9, 1662; 1663
"Aristotle indeed affirms the Mind to be at first a meer Rasa tabula; and that these Notions are not ingenite, and imprinted by the finger of Nature, but by the latter and more languid impressions of sense; being onely the Reports of observation, and the Result of so many repeated Experiments."
preview | full record— South, Robert (1634-1716)
Date: 1666
"The composition of all poems is or ought to be of wit, and wit in the poet, or wit writing (if you will give me leave to use a school distinction), is no other than the faculty of imagination in the writer, which, like a nimble spaniel, beats over and ranges through the field of memory, till it ...
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1666
Elocution is " that art of clothing and adorning that thought so found and varied, in apt, significant, and sounding word."
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1667
"For, though Man's Soul, and Body are not onely one natural Engine (as some have thought) of whose motions of all sorts, there may be as certain an accompt given, as those of a Watch or a Clock"
preview | full record— Sprat, Thomas (bap. 1635, d. 1713)
Date: 1667
"But to do this always, and never be able to write a line without it, though it may be admired by some few pedants, will not pass upon those who know that wit is best conveyed to us in the most easy language; and is most to be admired when a great thought comes dressed in words so commonly receiv...
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1670
"Having to his great Wit added the ballast of Learning"
preview | full record— Walton, Izaak (1593-1683)
Date: 1673
Modest "is indeed a vertu of a general influence; does not only ballast the mind with sober and humble thoughts of ones self, but also steers every part of the outward frame."
preview | full record— Allestree, Richard (1611/2-1681)
Date: 1673
" For tho the adulterations of art, can represent in the same Face beauty in one position, and deformity in another, yet nature is more sincere, and never meant a serene and clear forhead, should be the frontispiece to a cloudy tempestuous heart."
preview | full record— Allestree, Richard (1611/2-1681)
Date: 1681
The Law of Nature has often been "described and discoursed in metaphorical and allusive Expressions, such as Engravings, and Inscriptions, and the Tables of the Heart."
preview | full record— Parker, Samuel (1640-1688)
Date: 1682
"I will have a care of being a Slave to my self; for it is a Perpetual, a Shameful, and the heaviest of all Servitudes; and this may be done by moderate Desires."
preview | full record— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)