Date: 1607

"To quench thy learned thirst I meant to draine / The Hippocrenian Fountaine of my braine."

— Walkington, Thomas (b. c. 1575, d. 1621)

Date: 1632

"Looke as it is with a Gold smith that melteth the metall that he is to make a vessell of, if after the melting thereof, there follow a cooling, it had beene as good it had never beene melted, it is as hard, haply harder, as unfit, haply unfitter, then it was before to make vessell of; but after ...

— Hooker, Richard (1554-1600)

Date: 1654

"First, all honest hearts are put into a just; but unprofitable horror, to think that such a flagitious wickedness could be committed; Then the Mother, who had rinced her soule with a fountain of teares, for so hatefull a miscarriage, and reconciled her self to that God, who was the only witness ...

— Hall, Joseph (1574-1656)

Date: 1660, 1676

"In these men the principles are holy, the instruction perfect, the law remaining, the perswasions uncancelled; but against all this torrent there is a whirlwind of passions, and filthy resolutions, and wilfulness, which corrupt the heart, while as yet the head is uncorrupted in the direct rules ...

— Taylor, Jeremy (bap. 1613, 1667)

Date: 1682

"Betwixt violent Passion, and a Fluctuation, or Wambling of the Mind, there is such a Difference, as betwixt the Agitation of a Storm, and the Nauseous Sickness of a Calm."

— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)

Date: 1691

"I cannot conceive the true Cause hereof [that Men of Learning are uncouth in their discourse], unless it be, that as Plants are Choakt by over-much Moisture, and Lamps are Stifl'd with too much Oil; so are the Actions of the Mind overwhelm'd by over-abundance of Matter and Study."

— Blount, Thomas Pope, Sir (1649-1697)

Date: 1697

"As a Ship at Sea running swiftly thro the Waves, leaves behind a Track, which is almost as soon lost as made, so that no sign can be found of its Passage thro that fluid Element: So the moisture of the Brain may be susceptible of an Idea for the present, but 'tis not lasting, nor is there any si...

— D'Assigny, Marius (1643-1717)

Date: 1741, 1742, 1755

"Which they explained by a Bottle's being filled with Sea Water, that swimming there a while, on the Bottle's breaking, flowed in again, and mingled with the common Mass."

— Warburton, William (1698-1779)

Date: Saturday, July 28, 1750

"Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; an eagerness for increase of possessions deluges the soul, and we sink into the gulphs of insatiability, only because we do not sufficiently consider, that all real need is very soon supplied, and all real danger of its invasion easily precluded."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, September 15, 1750

"The attention is dissipated by variety, and acts more weakly upon any single part, as that torrent may be drawn off to different channels, which, pouring down in one collected body, cannot be resisted."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)