Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"No!--'tis my Glory that the Christian Light / Has dawn'd, like Day, upon my darker Mind, / And taught my Soul the noblest use of Reason; / Taught her to soar aloft, to search, to know / The vast eternal Fountain of her Being."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Fools that we are! to vex the lab'ring Brain, / And waste decaying Nature thus with Thought; / To keep the weary Spirits waking still; / To goad and drive 'em in eternal Rounds / Of restless wracking Care; 'tis all in vain. / Blind Goddess Chance! henceforth I follow thee."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Fly swift as Thought, and set her free this Moment, / Or by my injur'd Love, a Name more sacred / Than all your Function knows, your Gods and you, / Your Temples, Altars, and your painted Shrines, / Your holy Trumpery shall blaze together."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Call back your Thoughts from each deluding Passion, / And wing your parting Soul for her last Flight."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Tho' at the Musick of thy Voice, I own, / My Soul is husht, it sinks into a Calm, / And takes sure Omen of its Peace from thee."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"Perhaps, indeed, such are your wandring Brains, / Our Author might haue spar'd his Tragick Pains."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: April 26, 1695; 1708

"Meditating by one's self is like digging in the Mine; it often, perhaps, brings up maiden Earth, which never came near the Light before; but whether it contain any Metal in it, is never so well tried as in Conversation with a knowing judicious Friend, who carries about him the true Touch-stone, ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: March 30, 1696; 1708

"Nay, I so far incline to comply with your Desires, that I every now and then lay by some Materials for it, as they occasionally occur in the Rovings of my Mind."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: June 15, 1697; 1708

"Do but think then what a Pleasure, what an Advantage it would be to me, to have you by me, who have so much Thought, so much Clearness, so much Penetration, all directed to the same Aim which I propose to my self, in all the Ramblings of my Mind."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1709, 1714

"Nor is it a wonder that Men are generally such faint Reasoners, and care so little to argue strictly on any trivial Subject in Company; when they dare so little exert their Reason in greater Matters, and are forc'd to argue lamely, where they have need of the greatest Activity and Strength. The ...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)