Date: 1774

"It is this that puts it in the power of genius to show itself: without this, its finest conceptions would perish, like an infant in the womb; without this, the brightest imagination would be like a vigorous mind confined in a lame or paralytic body."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1776

"These two qualities therefore, probability and plausibility, (if I may be indulged a little in the allegoric style) I shall call Sister-graces, daughters of the same father Experience, who is the progeny of Memory, the first-born and heir of Sense. These daughters Experience had by different mot...

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1783

"But it is urged, that in sleep, the soul is passive, and haunted by visions, which she would gladly get rid of if she could"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"While we listen to a discourse, or read a book, how often , in spite of all our care, does the fancy wander, and present thoughts quite different from those we have in view! "

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

In reverie "we are conscious of something like mental relaxation; while one idea brings in another, which gives way to a third, and that in its turn is succeeded by others; the mind seeming all along to be passive, and to exert as little authority over its thoughts, as the eye does over the perso...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"At this window (as the wise man calls it) the soul is often seen in her genuine character, even when the porter below (I mean the tongue) is endeavouring to persuade us, that she is not within, that she is otherwise employed, or that she is quite a different person"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"Does the human soul go up to the pia mater, as a housewife does to her garret, only at certain times? Or, if she makes it her place of abode, are there any corners of it which she is unacquainted with, or neglects to look into?'

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1785

"He conjectured, that the soul is seated in a small gland in the brain, called the pineal gland: That there, as in her chamber of presence, she receives intelligence of every thing that affects the senses, by means of a subtile fluid contained in the nerves, called the animal spirits; and that sh...

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)

Date: 1787

"Still crowding thoughts, a pensive train, / Rose in my soul"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1788

"For me in vain is Nature drest, / While Joy's a stranger to my breast"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)