Date: May 10, 1704

"As the face of nature never produces rain but when it is overcast and disturbed, so human understanding, seated in the brain, must be troubled and overspread by vapours ascending from the lower faculties to water the invention, and render it fruitful."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: May 10, 1704

"Thus far, I suppose, will easily be granted me; and then it will follow that as the face of Nature never produces rain but when it is overcast and disturbed, so human understanding seated in the brain must be troubled and overspread by vapours ascending from the lower faculties to water the inve...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1709

An "early prejudice" may have "implanted in the mind" a "false persuasion"

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1709

A "false persuasion" "implanted in the mind" by prejudice may be rooted out

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: Tuesday, June 28, to Thursday, June 30, 1709

"For this reason, I sat by an eminent story-teller and politician who takes half an ounce in five seconds, and has mortgaged a pretty tenement near the town, merely to improve and dung his brains with this prolific powder."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Monday, September 17, 1711

"A Mind thus equal and uniform may be deserted by little fashionable Admirers and Followers, but will ever be had in Reverence by Souls like it self. The Branches of the Oak endure all the Seasons of the Year, though its Leaves fall off in Autumn; and these too will be restored with the returning...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: February 27, 1712

"It is certainly the proper Education we should give our selves, to be prepared for the ill Events and Accidents we are to meet with in a Life sentenced to be a Scene of Sorrow: But instead of this Expectation, we soften our selves with Prospects of constant Delight, and destroy in our Minds the ...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1727

Young gentlemen may be "wholly neglected and left to branch forth into numberless Follies, like a rich Field uncultivated, that abounds in nothing but tall Weeds and gaudy scentless Flowers"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1727

Women have the same "Passions and Inclinations [as Men], which when let loose without a Curb, grow wild and untameable, defy all Laws and Rules, and can be subdued by nothing but what they are seldom Mistresses of"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1732

"You must know, said he, that the mind of man may be fitly compared to a piece of land. What stubbing, ploughing, digging, and harrowing is to the one, that thinking, reflecting, examining is to the other."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)