Date: 1688

"Here's Cavities, says one; and here, says he, / Is th' Seat of Fancy, Judgment, Memory: / Here, says another, is the fertile Womb, / From whence the Spirits Animal do come, / Which are mysteriously ingender'd here, / Of Spirits from Arterious Blood and Air: / Here, said a third, Life made her fi...

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

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."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundati...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1704

"Wherefore consecrate the first Fruits of Reason to God; you can't begin the Practice of Piety too soon, but may be too late; Nature untainted with Vice may be wrought with ease into any Form, and cast in any Mould"

— Darrell, William (1651-1721)

Date: 1704

"It's a kind of tabula rasa, a Blank, that almost with the same Facility receives the Characters of Angel, and of Devil; but when once it's stained with Sin, when it's by-assed by ill Habits, and worse Principles, you will find it stubborn and rebellious."

— Darrell, William (1651-1721)

Date: 1705

"At length a Court of Conscience is erected by the Mind, where all particular Acts are scrupulously examined, by reason of these frequent Variances of the Souls, the Animal Spirits, as being too much, and in a manner perpetually exercised, and being commanded here and there contrary ways, and alm...

— Beaumont, John (c.1640-1731)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"I will not repeat to you, Madam, the divers Conflicts of my Thoughts and the Agitation of my Mind on this Occasion; for my Interior labour'd as it were under a Fever and Ague, burning with an irresistible Inclination for Marcellus"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"[W]hen once Passion blinds us, Passion misguides us, Passion overthrows us, Passion destroys us, and no Passion so strong and so deceitful as that of Love; Love rocks our Reason into a Lethargy, and then does what it pleases with the rest of our Interior"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"Then since it is impossible to make my Heart cease from sighing Love, and my Mind from thinking Love, my Eyes from languishing, it is vain to command my Tongue to cease from declaring what all my interiour Passions dictate"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1714 [1712, 1717]

"As on the Nosegay in her Breast reclin'd, / He watch'd th' Ideas rising in her Mind, / Sudden he view'd, in spite of all her Art, / An Earthly Lover lurking at her Heart."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)