Date: 1641

"But if the entire soul is something of this kind, why should you, who may be thought of as the noblest part of the soul, not be regarded as being, so to speak, the flower, or the most refined and pure and active part of it?"

— Gassendi, Pierre (1592-1655)

Date: 1704

"Wherefore consecrate the first Fruits of Reason to God; you can't begin the Practice of Piety too soon, but may be too late; Nature untainted with Vice may be wrought with ease into any Form, and cast in any Mould"

— Darrell, William (1651-1721)

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: 1713, 1719

"This Fancy having once taken Root, grew apace, and branch'd it self forth into a thousand vain Conceits."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1723

"Cease, prithee, Muse, thus to infest / The barren Region of my Breast, / Which never can an Harvest yield, / Since Weeds of Noise o'er-run the Field."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1733-4

"As fruits ungrateful to the planter's care / On savage stocks inserted learn to bear; / The surest Virtues thus from Passions shoot, / Wild Nature's vigor working at the root."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Grant but as many sorts of mind, as Moss."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Tis Education forms the vulgar mind: / Just as the Twig is bent, the Tree's inclin'd."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill, / Grafts on this Passion our best principle: / 'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd, / Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"It is not so much the being exempt from Faults, as the having overcome them, that is an Advantage to us; it being with the Follies of the Mind as with the Weeds of a Field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their Birth, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung the...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)