Date: w. 1718 [first published 1907]

"All this says Richard is but Nonsense / For whats the Will without the Conscience / That mighty Pow'r by whom the thought / Is from Kings Bench to Chanc'ry brought. / What Seat for Her have You assign'd / When She may view and sway the mind?"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1642

"The heart of man is the place the Devils dwell in: I feel sometimes a Hell within my self; Lucifer keeps his Court in my breast, Legion is revived in me."

— Browne, Sir Thomas (1605-1682)

Date: 1687

"But, when arrived at last to human race, / The Godhead took a deep considering space; / And, to distinguish man from all the rest, / Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast; / And mercy mixt with reason did impart, / One to his head, the other to his heart; / Reason to rule, but mercy to f...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1697

"The Soul that awful Throne of Thought, That sacred Seat of Contemplation."

— Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664-1726)

Date: 1699

"The Passions still predominant will rule: / Uncivil, rude, nor bred in Reason's School."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1706 [first published 1658]

"To Strike, to beat or hit, to affect or make an Impression upon the Senses or Mind; to make Measure even with a Strike or Strickle,"

— Phillips, Edward (1630-1696)

Date: 1718

"A thousand little Nerves She sends / Quite to our Toes, and Fingers Ends; / And These in Gratitude again / Return their Spirits to the Brain; / In which their Figure being printed / (As just before, I think, I hinted) / Alma inform'd can try the Case, / As She had seen upon the Place. // Thus, w...

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1719

"I now began to consider seriously my Condition, and the Circumstance I was reduc'd to, and I drew up the State of my Affairs in Writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me, for I was like to have but few Heirs, as to deliver my Thoughts from daily poring upon them, and a...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1720

"His Fancy still awake; the roving Guest / Usurps the Throne of Reason in his Breast: / Forms great Ideas, and religious Schemes, / A busy mime, and floats in golden Dreams."

— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)

Date: 1723

"Tho' now, 'tis true, the strong Temptation's Force / Suspends Religion, and diverts its Course; / Yet still the Pow'r that chiefly rules your Soul, / And will I trust your future Life controul, / Is heav'nly Virtue, which, tho' now opprest / It sleeps a while unactive in your Breast, / Will, rou...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)