Date: 1681

"In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. / A fiery Soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay; / And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1682

"Judge then what my Heart Feels, who, like a fire but lightly cover'd o're with the cold Ashes of Despair, with the least blast, breaks out into a flame."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701

"For the human mind has within it a sort of spark of the divine, in which the first seeds of useful ways of thinking are sown, seeds which, however neglected and stifled by studies which impede them, often bear fruit of their own accord."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1685

The "Amorous fire inkindled in my brest" receives little nourishment "By giving me your hand and denying me the rest"

— Anonymous; Corneille (1606-1684)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"As soon as ever the Parts begin to be form'd by Nature, this Animal and active Principle begins to exert its Heat and Force, being lodged in the Heart as in the Centre of the Body, from whence, as the Vessels begin also to be form'd, it distributes it self towards the extreme Regions, communicat...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1688

"Sole Queen of my affections and desire, / That like to Ætna sets my heart on fire,"

— Scot, Walter (b. 1613, d. in or after 1688)

Date: 1688

"I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"But Love, who had hitherto but play'd with her Heart, and given it naught but pleasing, wanton Wounds, such as afforded only soft Joys, and not Pains, resolv'd, either out of Revenge to those Numbers she had abandon'd, and who had sigh'd so long in vain; or to try what power he had upon so fickl...

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"He finds this dreaded Rival in the same House with him, with an Authority equal to his own; and fansies, where two Hearts are so entirely agreed, and have so good an Understanding, it wou'd not be impossible to find Opportunities to satisfie and ease that mutual Flame that burnt so equally in bo...

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"Nor cou'd all his Sufferings, and the Prospect of Death it self, drive from his Soul one Spark of that Fire the obstinate God had fatally kindl'd there."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)