Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"Indeed, whosoever considers the curious Inventions of Wit, the vast Comprehension and subtile Inferences of the Understanding, the wonderful Sagacity and Prospect of Prudence, the noble Endowments and Speculations of the Mind, the quick Transitions and Successions of Thoughts, together with the ...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"For certain 'tis that Memory in Youth is infinitely more ready than in men of riper years, as appears from their different capacitys in learning of a Language; and then for Invention which always builds out of the Store-house of Memory, 'tis then most perfect and various when the Spirits are mos...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"But I like not this Method; for 'tis too tedious, serious and puzling for young Capacities to strugle with: for tho the progress be most natural and convincing, and the deductions of Theorems from one another, though they may ravish the Contemplative, yet it requires a man to have a complex Appr...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"Having spoken in the foregoing Chapter of the Improvements of the Mind by Erudition, it follows of Course that we speak of the Improvement of the Body by Exercise. Indeed a Vigorous and Athletick Habit of Body, doth extreamly advance the like Disposition and Ability in the Mind; Since all Intell...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1711

"When Fancy makes superior Flight her Aim, / Wing'd with this vig'rous, clear seraphick Flame, / She ranges Nature's universal Frame; / Bright Seeds of Thought from various Objects takes, / Whence her fair Scenes and Images she makes: / Spirits so swift, so fine, so bold, so strong, / Gave Milton...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1744

"Reason progressive, Instinct is complete: / Swift Instinct leaps; slow Reason feebly climbs."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"In man, the more we dive, the more we see / Heaven's signet stamping an immortal make."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Fierce passions, so mismeasured to this scene, / Stretch'd out, like eagles' wings, beyond our nest, / Far, far beyond the worth of all below, / For earth too large, presage a nobler flight, / And evidence our title to the skies."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Yet still, through their disgrace [the passions'], no feeble ray / Of greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell: / But these (like that fallen monarch [Adam] when reclaim'd) / When Reason moderates the rein aright, / Shall re-ascend, remount their former sphere, / Where once they soar'd il...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"Whence, then, those thoughts? those towering thoughts that flew / Such monstrous heights?"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)