Date: 1259

In our minds "the divine image shines."

— St. Bonaventure [born Giovanni di Fidanza] (1217-1274)

Date: 1273

"For the relation of phantasms to the intellect is like the relation of colors to the sense of sight, as he says De Anima iii, 5,7. Therefore, as the species of colors are in the sight, so are the species of phantasms in the possible intellect."

— St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Date: 1380-1387

"Thus gan he make a mirour of his minde, / In which he saugh al hoolly hir figure."

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1605?

"Within thine eyes (the Mirrors of my minde) / Mine eies behold themselues, wherein they see / (As through a Glasse) what in my Soule I find; / And so my Soules right shape I see in thee."

— Davies, John (1564/5-1618)

Date: 1641

A geometrical argument fills the mind and allows one to see everything at a single glance

— Mersenne, Marin (1588-1648)

Date: 1641

A calm mind, free from the hurly-burly of external things, may fix its gaze on itself

— Arnauld, Antoine (1612-1694)

Date: 1641

"Now if we are to become aware of something, it is necessary for the thing to act on the cognitive faculty by transmitting its semblance to the faculty or by informing the faculty with its semblance. Hence it seems clear that the faculty itself, not being outside itself, cannot transmit a semblan...

— Gassendi, Pierre (1592-1655)

Date: 1705

"Natalis Comes says, The Genii or Daemons present us with the Species or Images of those things they would perswade us to, as in a Glass; on which Images, when our Soul privately looks, those things come into our Mind; which, if consider'd with Reason, give us a right determination of Mind."

— Beaumont, John (c.1640-1731)

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"True Wit is Nature to Advantage drest, / What oft was Thought, but ne'er so well Exprest; / Something, whose Truth convinc'd at Sight we find, / That gives us back the Image of our Mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: w. 1703, 1712

"The clear, reflecting Mind, presents his Sin / In frightful Views, and makes it Day within."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)