Date: 1667

"Conscience is Christs Vicar in mans heart, / It keeps Court there, and acts the Judges part"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1675

"Those things are mean, are forc'd to court the Eyes, The Porters of the Soul, to give 'em entrance."

— Fane, Sir Francis (d. 1691)

Date: 1693

"No suppliant crowds before the judge appeared; / No court erected yet, nor cause was heard; / But all was safe, for conscience was their guard."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1696

"Poor thredbare Vertue ne'er admir'd in Court. / But seeks its Refuge in an honest Mind, / There it securely dwells, / Like Anchorets in Cells / Where no Ambition nor wild Lust resorts."

— Tutchin, John (1661-1707)

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)