Date: w. 1677, 1702

"Vain wandring Thoughts, that crowd within my Breast / Do oft obstruct my Soul from Solid Rest; / like to vagrant Clouds, obscure the Mind / Which should to serious watching be inclin'd."

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: 1703, 1718

Light may fly back to Heaven and leave one's breast bereft of its "Celestial Guest"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1706

"There are so many ways of fallacy, such arts of giving colours, appearances and resemblances by this court-dresser, the fancy, that he who is not wary to admit nothing but truth itself, very careful not to make his mind subservient to any thing else, cannot but be caught."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1708

"Passion more substantial Courts our Reason, solid, persuasive, elegant, sublime, where ev'ry Sense crowds to the luscious Banquet, and ev'ry nobler Faculty's imploy'd"

— Baker, Thomas (b. 1680-1)

Date: 1712, 1796

"Her body delicate, wherein enshrin'd, / As in its temple, dwelt a virtuous mind."

— Ellwood, Thomas (1639-1713)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"But when he consider'd how much he had struggled, and how far he had been from being able to repel Desire, he began to wonder that it cou'd ever enter into his Thoughts, that there was even a Possibility for Woman, so much stronger in her Fancy, and weaker in her Judgment, to suppress the Influe...

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the secret Soul's imperial Throne / Surrounded with thick Darkness, like thy own, / Where she to all the Senses Audience gives, / Appoints their Tasks, their Messages receives, / And passes Judgement in her Sov'reign Court / On every Envoy's true or false Report / How her sole Nod...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"The Cells, and little Lodgings, Thou canst see / In Mem'ry's Hoards and secret Treasury; / Dost the dark Cave of each Idea spy, / And see'st how rang'd the crouded Lodgers lye; / How some, when beckon'd by the Soul, awake, / While peaceful Rest their uncall'd Neighbours take."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"And now his Spirits by the Impulse move / Of the new Guest [Love], while soft unpractis'd Pains / Throb in his Breast and thrill along his Veins."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1744

"The witnesses are heard; the cause is o'er; / Let Conscience file the sentence in her court, / Dearer than deeds that half a realm convey."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)