Date: 1665

"But as though grains of Sand and Ashes be a part, but of a despicable smallness, and very easie, and liable to be scatter'd, and blown away; yet the skilful Artificer, by a vehement Fire, brings Numbers of these to afford him that noble substance, Glass, by whose help we may both see our selves,...

— Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)

Date: 1699

"We do plainly perceive that our Bodies are clogs to our Minds: And all the use that even the purest sort of Body in an Estate conceived to be glorified, can be of to a Mind, is to be an Instrument of local Motion, or to be a repository of Ideas for Memory and Imagination."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1699

"They infer, That besides the outward Enlightening of a Man by Knowledge, there is an inward Enlightening of the Mind, and a secret forcible conviction stampt on it."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1700, 1712

"And so our Saviour tells us, that 'whosoever committeth sin is the Servant of sin'; and this is the vilest and hardest Slavery in the World, because it is the Servitude of the Soul, the best and noblest part of our selves; 'tis the subjection of our Reason, which ought to rule and bear Sway over...

— Tillotson, John (1630-1694)

Date: 1703

"And this is a great bondage to the mind of man, to live in ignorance of those things which are useful for us to know; to be mistaken about those matters which are of great moment and concernment to us to be rightly informed in: Ignorance is the confinement of our understandings, as Knowledge and...

— Tillotson, John (1630-1694)

Date: 1703

"Wickedness and vice is the bondage of the will, which is the proper seat of liberty: and therefore there is no such slave in the world, as a man that is subject to his lusts; that is under the tyranny of strong and unruly passions, of vicious inclinations and habits."

— Tillotson, John (1630-1694)

Date: 1730

"[C]an thy Passions so out-strip thy Reason, to send thee wading through Falshood, Perjury, and Murther, after a flying Light which you can ne'er o'ertake!"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: June 1, 1732

"Oh! give me way, come all you Furies, come, / Lodge in th'unfurnish'd Chambers of my Heart, / My Heart which never shall be let again / To any Guest but endless Misery, / Never shall have a Bill upon it more."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: June 1, 1732

"Ha! Distraction wild / Begins to wanton in my unhing'd Brain: / Methinks I'm mad, mad as a wild March Hare; / My muddy Brain is addled like an Egg, / My Teeth, like Magpies, chatter in my Head; / My reeling Head! which akes like any mad."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1742

A lady may be "tortured with Perplexity; opposite Passions distracting and tearing her Mind different ways"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)