Date: 1712

"But other Spirits govern'd by the Will / Shoot thro' their Tracks, and distant Muscles fill. / This Sov'raign by his arbitrary Nod / Restrains, or sends his Ministers abroad."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"You say, the Spirits in the Optick Nerve, / Mov'd by the intercepted Image, serve / To bear th' Impression to the Brain, and give / The Stroke, by which the Object we perceive."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Where dwells this Sovereign Arbitrary Soul, / Which does the human Animal controul, / Inform each Part, and agitate the whole?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"O'er Ministerial Senses [the soul] does preside, / To all their various Provinces divide, / Each Member move, and ev'ry Motion guide."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Which by her secret uncontested Nod / Her Messengers the Spirits sends abroad, / Thro' ev'ry nervous Pass, and ev'ry vital Road. / To fetch from ev'ry distant Part a Train, / Of outward Objects to enrich the Brain."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Where sits this bright Intelligence enthron'd, / With numberless Ideas pour'd around? Where Wisdom, Prudence, Contemplation stand, / And busie Fantoms watch her high Command:/ Where Sciences and Arts in order wait, / And Truths Divine compose her Godlike State"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Can the dissecting Steel the Brain display, / And the august Apartment open lay, / Where this great Queen still chuses to reside / In Intellectual Pomp, and bright Ideal Pride? / Or can the Eye assisted by the Glass / Discern the strait, but hospitable Place, / In which ten thousand Images remai...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"The ready Phantomes at her Nod advance, / And form the busie Intellectual Dance: / While her fair Scenes to vary, or supply, / She singles out fit Images, that lye / In Memory's Records, which faithful hold / Objects immense in secret Marks inroll'd, / The sleeping Forms at her Command awake, / ...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"She [the soul] does her Godlike Liberty secure: / Her Right and high Prerogative maintains, / Impatient of the Yoke, and scorns coercive Chains."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"She [the soul] can her airy Train of Forms disband, / And makes new Levées at her own Command."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)