Date: Monday, June 18, 1711
"The latter [the fool and his passions] is like the Owner of a barren Country that fills his Eye with the Prospect of naked Hills and Plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other [the wise man and his ideas] beholds a beautiful and spacious Landskip divided into deligh...
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Monday, December 17, 1711
"Now as to the peculiar Qualities of the Eye, that fine Part of our Constitution seems as much the Receptacle and Seat of our Passions, Appetites and Inclinations as the Mind it self; and at least it is the outward Portal to introduce them to the House within, or rather the common Thorough-fare t...
preview | full record— Anonymous
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: Tuesday, January 15, 1712
"We discovered several little Roads or Canals running from the Ear into the Brain, and took particular care to trace them out through their several Passages."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Wednesday, July 2, 1712
"Our Reason can pursue a Particle of Matter through an infinite Variety of Divisions, but the Fancy soon loses sight of it, and feels in it self a kind of Chasm, that wants to be filled with Matter of a more sensible Bulk."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: 1713
"Sometimes, to wander through perfumed groves, or enamelled meadows, in the fancy of a poet."
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1722
"And here indeed I have been often put upon a serious Consideration, how such a Heap of Pultis like Matter, a kind of Quag or Bog, and which as Sydenham observes, carries so little Analogy in its Form, and appears seemingly so unlikely to manage an Office of Intelligence, should yet be qualified ...
preview | full record— Turner, Daniel (1667-1741)
Date: 1726
"I know in descriptions of this nature the scenes are generally supposed to grow out of the author's imagination, and if they are not charming in all their parts, the reader never imputes it to the want of sun or soil, but to the barrenness of invention"
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: 1728 (1733)
"Shall he shut up all the Avenues of his Body, by which External Objects have access to affect his Mind ? And shall he rob the Mind her self of all Thought and Reflection?"
preview | full record— Campbell, Archibald (1691-1756)
Date: 1732
"You must know, said he, that the mind of man may be fitly compared to a piece of land. What stubbing, ploughing, digging, and harrowing is to the one, that thinking, reflecting, examining is to the other."
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)