Date: 1745

"O keep the dear impression on your breast, / Nor idly loose it for a wretched jest.

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1754

"As the mind does not act till it is rouzed into action by external objects; so when it does act, it acts conformably to the suggestions it receives from these impressions, and takes with its first ideas the hints how to multiply, and improve them."

— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)

Date: 1754

"But a nature capable of sensation, that is of perception, that is of thought (to say nothing of spontaneous motion, of memory, nor of the passions) cannot be incapable of another mode of thinking, any more than finite extension can be capable of one figure alone, or a piece of wax that receives ...

— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)