Date: May 10, 1704

"Now he that will examine human nature with circumspection enough may discover several handles, whereof the six senses afford one apiece, beside a great number that are screwed to the passions, and some few riveted to the intellect."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: May 10, 1704

"To this end I have some time since, with a world of pains and art, dissected the carcass of human nature, and read many useful lectures upon the several parts, both containing and contained, till at last it smelt so strong I could preserve it no longer."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1704

"When gentle Reason rules thy Breast; / The Sun upon the calmest Sea / Appears not half so bright as Thee."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1704

"Erect your schemes with as much method and skill as you please; yet, if the materials be nothing but dirt, spun out of your own entrails (the guts of modern brains), the edifice will conclude at last in a cobweb; the duration of which, like that of other spiders’ webs, may be imputed to their be...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1705, 1709

"Has She a Bodkin and a Card? / She'll prick her Mind."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1705, 1709

"Let all her Ways be unconfin'd: / And clap your Padlock--on her Mind"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: Tuesday, October 22, 1706

"Sometimes it is acted by the evil Spirit of general Vogue, and like a meer Possession 'tis hurry'd out of all manner of common Measures; to day it obeys the Course of things and submits to Causes and Consequences; to morrow it suffers Violence from the Storms and Vapours of Human Fancy, operated...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1706

"Oh! where shall I begin? what language find / To heal the raging anguish of your mind?"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711

"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1709

"What Passions in a Parent's Breast debate!"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)