Date: c. 501 B.C.

"One would never discover the limits of soul, should one traverse every road--so deep a measure does it possess."

— Heraklitus (fl. 504-1 BCE)

Date: 54 B.C.

"These charges, at first held in constant mind, from Theseus slipped away as clouds are impelled by the breath of the winds from the ethereal peak of a snow-clad mount."

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)

Date: 1653

"A thought for Breeding would a Travellour be, / The several Countries in the Brain to see; / Spurr'd with Desires he was, Booted with Hope, / His Cap Curios'ty, Patience was his Cloak: / Thus Suited, strait a Horse he did provide, / And Strong Imagination got to Ride; / Which Sadled with Ambitio...

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"Some ways i'th' Brain were Ill, and Foul with all, / Which made him oft into deep Errours fall; / Oft was he hid by Mountains high of Fear, / Then slid down Precipices of Despair; / Woods of Forgetfulness he oft past through, / To find the Right way out, had much ado."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1667

"A Conscience unstain'd with blushing crimes, / Holds out in all changes of States and Times. / Mount Sion and good Conscience abide / For ever"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1681?

"My mind was once the true survey / Of all these meadows fresh and gay"

— Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)

Date: 1681?

"For Juliana comes, and she, / What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me."

— Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)

Date: 1684

"Much like th' ore-fond, tormented Lover, / Whose Travels Scorns alone discover / To th' chased Stag? Their Dwellings bear / Same form, sad-fortun'd Both appear, / Wilderness round his Fancy shows, / Which wild, disorder'd Thoughts compose; / Hunted by Dogs each strong for Scent / (Grief, Rage, D...

— Harington, John (1627-1700)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"[U]nless he turn his Thoughts that way, and considers them attentively, he will no more have clear and distinct Ideas of all the Operations of his Mind, and all that may be observed therein, than he will have all the particular Ideas of any Landscape, or of Par...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1697

Locke's readers are "led into a Wood of Idea's ... and there they are lost; pleasantly indeed, amongst Lights and Shades, and many pretty Landskips"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)