Date: 1724-6

"Even the men of business, who are really so when in London; whether it be at the Exchange, the Alley, or the Treasury-Offices, and the Court; yet here they look as if they had left all their London thoughts behind them, and had separated themselves to mirth and good company; as if they came hith...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1726

"If this be the Case, it dictates the Necessity of early Education of Children, in whom, not the Soul only but the organick Powers are, as a Lump of soft Wax, which is always ready to receive any Impression; but if harden'd, grow callous, and stubborn, and like what we call Sealing-Wax, obstinate...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"In Venus the Heat would boil the Water, and consequently the Blood in the Body, and a Set of human Bodies must be form'd that could live always in a hot Bath, and neither sweat out their Souls, or melt their Bodies."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"To see a Fool, a Fop, believe himself inspir'd, a Fellow that washes his Hands fifty times a-day, but if he would be truly cleanly, should have his Brains taken out and wash'd, his Scull Trapan'd, and plac'd with the hind-side before, that his Understanding, which Nature plac'd by Mistake, with ...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"For I cannot agree that the Soul is in the Body, as in a Prison; but rather that, like a rich Nobleman, he is pleas'd to inhabit a fine Country Seat or Palace of his own Building, where he resolves to live and enjoy himself, and does so, 'till by the Fate of things his fine Palace being over-tur...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"The Steward had no publick Notice of any Harm approaching; but for three or four Days successively he had secret strange Impulses of Dread and Terror upon his Mind that the House was beset, and was to be assaulted by a Troop of Banditti, or as we call them here, House-breakers, who would murther...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"Conscience, indeed, is a frightful Apparition itself, and I make no Question but it oftentimes haunts an oppressing Criminal into Restitution, and is a Ghost to him sleeping or waking: nor is it the least Testimony of an invisible World that there is such a Drummer as that in the Soul, that can ...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"The Soul of the Murther'd Person seeks no Revenge; all that Part is swallowed up in the Wonders of the eternal State, and Vengeance entirely resign'd to him to whom it belongs; but the Soul of the Murtherer is like the Ocean in a Tempest, he is in continual Motion, restless and raging; and the G...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"In this distracted Condition, Conscience, like a Storm at Sea, still breaks over him; first gathers about him in a thick black Cloud, threatning the Deaths that it comes loaded with; and after hovering about him for a-while, at last bursts with Lightnings and Thunder, and the poor shatter'd Vess...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"But in the midst of these Tumults of his Soul, he had a strong Impression upon his Mind, that he could never die in Peace, nor ever go to Heaven, if he did not go over to England, and either get the Parliament's Pardon (for it was in those Days when there was no King in Israel) or that if he cou...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)