Date: Monday, August 24. 1724

"Vast Sea of Ecstacy, that drowns the Mind! / That fierce Transfusion of exchanging Hearts! / That gliding Glimpse of Heav'n, in pulsive Starts? / That veiny Rush! That warm, tumultuous, Roll! / That Fire that kindles Bodies into Soul!"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: Monday, July 13, 1724

"Oh, Jealousy!--All other Storms are Calms / To Thee!--Thou Conflagration of the Soul!"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: Friday, March 5, 1725

"When Men see their Neighbour's House on Fire, every one contributes his utmost to quench it: But when they see the Mind inflamed with furious Passion, they bring Fewel to nourish and increase it."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1727

"It is without Doubt, that Fancy and Imagination form a world of Apparitions in the Minds of Men and Women; (for we must not exclude the Ladies in this Part, whatever we do) and People go away as thoroughly possess'd with the Reality of having seen the Devil, as if they convers'd Face to Face wit...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: April 30, 1730

"The spirit of the brain, distilled by the heat of the imagination, like some chemical preparations, when exposed to the air, is apt to smoke, to take fire, to crack, and bounce, to the no small disturbance of the neighbourhood."

— Richard Russel and John Martyn

Date: 1730

"There is something so pathetick in this kind of diction, that it often sets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1733

"I own it is much easier to confute than establish, and I should not be very Sanguin about the Non-existence of animal Spirits, but that I have observ'd the dwelling so much upon them, has led Physicians too much to neglect the mending Juices, the opening Obstructions, and the strengthening the S...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: January 1739

"In that case resemblance converts the idea into an impression, not only by means of the relation, and by transfusing the original vivacity into the related idea; but also by presenting such materials as take fire from the least spark."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"The Duc de la Rochefoucault has very well observed, that absence destroys weak passions, but encreases strong; as the wind extinguishes a candle, but blows up a fire"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1749

"Without proper food the soul languishes, raves, and dies with faintness. It is like a taper, which revives in the moment it is going to be extinguished."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)