Date: 1709, 1810
"Yet the silly wand'ring mind, / Loth to be too much confin'd, / Roves and takes her daily tours, / Coasting round the narrow shores, / Narrow shores of flesh and sense, / Picking shells and pebbles thence: / Or she sits at fancy's door, / Calling shapes and shadows to her, / Foreign visits still...
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1710, 1714
"This indeed is but too certain; That as long as we enjoy a Mind; as long as we have Appetites and Sense, the Fancys of all kinds will be hard at work; and whether we are in company, or alone, they must range still, and be active. They must have their Field. The Question is, Whether they shall ha...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1711
"And reflecting on what is transacted within us, it seems to me a very diverting Scene to think when we strive to recollect something that does not then occur; how nimbly those volatil Messengers of ours will beat through all the Paths, and hunt every Enclosure of the Organ set aside for thinking...
preview | full record— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)
Date: 1712
"These Out-guards of the Mind are sent abroad, / And still patrolling beat the neighb'ring Road: / Or to the Parts remote obedient fly, / Keep Posts advanc'd, and on the Frontier lye."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1712
"But other Spirits govern'd by the Will / Shoot thro' their Tracks, and distant Muscles fill. / This Sov'raign by his arbitrary Nod / Restrains, or sends his Ministers abroad."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1712
"O'er Ministerial Senses [the soul] does preside, / To all their various Provinces divide, / Each Member move, and ev'ry Motion guide."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: January 16, 1717
"Madam, excuse this Absence of Mind; my animal Spirits had deserted the Avenues of my Senses, and retired to the Recesses of the Brain, to contemplate a beautiful Idea. I could not force the vagrant Creatures back again into their Posts, to move those Parts of the Body that express Civility."
preview | full record— Gay, John (1685-1732); Pope, Alexander (1688-1744); Arbuthnot, John (bap. 1677, d. 1735)
Date: 1718
"My simple System shall suppose, / That Alma enters at the Toes; / That then She mounts by just Degrees / Up to the Ancles, Legs, and Knees: / Next, as the Sap of Life does rise, / She lends her Vigor to the Thighs: / And, all these under-Regions past,/ She nestles somewhere near the Waste."
preview | full record— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)
Date: 1724
"For Nature by fix'd Laws has wisely join'd / The bright Ideas of the conscious Mind / To Motions of the liquid spirit'ous Train, / Thro' previous Traces of the humid Brain; / These, when the Soul by drowsy Sleep oppress'd / Into her private Cell retires to Rest, / Thro' beaten Paths their wand'r...
preview | full record— Needler, Henry (1690-1718); Duncombe, William (1690-1769)
Date: 1724, 1725
"[Love] that Tyrant Passion lords it o'er the Mind, fills every Faculty, and leaves no room for any other Thought--drives Consideration far away--overturns Reflection-- and permits no Image but itself to dwell in Fancy's Region"
preview | full record— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)