Date: 1712

"To view thy Self inflect thy Reason's Ray, / Nature's replenish'd Theater survey."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"What Philosophic Builder will essay / By Rules Mechanic to unfold the way / How a Machine must be dispos'd to think, / Ideas how to frame, and how to link?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

Lucretius and Epicurus are asked, "How to the Mind a Thought reflected goes, / And how the conscious Engine knows it Knows."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"The Learned, who with Anatomic Art / Dissect the Mind, and thinking Substance part, / And various Pow'rs and Faculties assert; / Perhaps by such Abstraction of the Mind / Divide the Things, that are in Nature joyn'd."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Did she not use the Senses Ministry, / Nor ever Taste, or Smell, or Hear, or See, / Cou'd she possest of Pow'r perceptive be?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"And tho' these Spirits, which obsequious go, / Know not the Paths, thro' which they ready flow, / Nor can our Mind instruct them in their Way, / Of all their Roads as ignorant, as they; / Yet seldom erring they attain their End, / And reach that single Part, which we intend."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Since all Perception in the Brain is made, / (Tho' where and how was never yet display'd) / And since so great a distance lies between / The Eye-ball, and the Seat of Sense within, / While in the Eye th'arrested Object stays, / Tell what th' Idea to the Brain conveys?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"Tell us, Lucretius, Epicurus, tell, / And you in Wit unrival'd shall excel, / How thro' the outward Sense the Object flies, / How in the Soul her Images arise. / What Thinking, what Perception is, explain; / What all the airy Creatures of the Brain; / How to the Mind a Thought reflected goes, / ...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"While from the Heart rich Streams with Vigour spring, / Bound thro' their Roads, and dance their Vital Ring; / And Spirits, swift as Sun-beams thro' the Skies, / Dart thro' thy Nerves, and sparkle in thy Eyes."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"While wanton Ferments swell thy glowing Veins, / To the warm Passion give the slacken'd Reins."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)