Date: 1543

Reason is like a beam of light.

— Vives, Juan Luis (1492-1540)

Date: 1698

"The First Step we take into our Inmost Thoughts, we meet with and discover these Primary Truths: whose Self-Evidence is the Earliest Light that dawns to our Soul, as soon as over her Power of Knowing awakens into Action."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"From all which Considerations, (any One of which might suffice,) I may Safely and Evidently conclude, that, in point of Evidence of its Truth, and Stability of its Grounds, nothing can be any way comparable to the Light which strikes the Eye of our Understanding, by its steady Rays emitted from ...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"So that, which way soever you wriggle, to avoid our Rule, the Light of Common Reason, or Natural Logick, will force you into it, whether you will or no."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"Nay, it must be such as may be produc'd openly, by the Asserters of any Truth; that, by alledging It, they may be able to convince others, that what they maintain is a Real Truth, and not some Phantastick Conceit of their own; without which, their Clear and Distinct Perception is Invisible, and ...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"Yet if we look more closely, we shall find / Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind: / Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light; / The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"If once right Reason drives that Cloud away, / Truth breaks upon us with resistless Day."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"Valerius now became an Example; for he was not wicked in his Nature, but misled by the Ignis-fatuus of his Passion and Interest."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Dim lights of life that burn a length of years, / Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)