Date: 1701
"Nor can this right be less when national; / Reason which governs one, should govern all."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1702
"Vice is a Thief, a Traytor in the Mind, / Assassinates the Vitals of Mankind."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: May 10, 1704
"Others of these professors, though agreeing in the main system, were yet more refined upon certain branches of it; and held that man was an animal compounded of two dresses, the natural and the celestial suit, which were the body and soul; that the soul was the outward, and the body the inward c...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
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."
preview | full record— 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 ...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: May 10, 1704
"And I think the reason is easy to be assigned: for there is a peculiar string in the harmony of human understanding which, in several individuals, is exactly of the same tuning. Thus, if you can dexterously screw up to its right key and then strike gently upon it, whenever you have the good fort...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: May 10, 1704
"Lastly, whoever pleases to look into the fountains of enthusiasm, from whence in all ages have eternally proceeded such fattening streams, will find the spring head to have been as troubled and muddy as the current."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: May 10, 1704
"But when a man's fancy gets astride his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors; the first proselyte he makes is himself, and when that is once compassed the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others,...
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1704
"Charity, decent, modest, easy, kind, / Softens the high, and rears the abject Mind; / Knows with just Reins, and gentle Hand to guide, / Betwixt vile Shame, and arbitrary Pride."
preview | full record— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)
Date: 1704
"As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass, / Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass; / A little we discover; but allow, / That more remains unseen, than Art can show: / So whilst our Mind it's Knowledge wou'd improve; / (It's feeble Eye intent on Things above) / High as We may, We lift our Rea...
preview | full record— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)