Date: 1741
"The very Greek Heathens by the Light of Reason were taught to say, [GREEK CHARACTERS], and the Latins, A Jove principium, Musae."
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1742
"Now, such ought to be the direction and diffusion of your understanding, not an effusion or emptying of itself, but an extension of it toward even any obstacle that occurs: Not violently and impetuously dashing against it, nor falling aside, but terminating directly on it, and illuminating whate...
preview | full record— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180), Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), and James Moor (bap. 1712, d. 1779)
Date: 1742
"So engaging are the sentiments of humanity, that they brighten up the very face of sorrow, and operate like the sun, which, shining on a dusky cloud or falling rain, paints on them the most glorious colours which are to be found in the whole circle of nature."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1745
"That lies veiled from the eyes of our mind; and the great God hath not thought fit to throw so much light upon it, as to satisfy the anxious and inquisitive desires the soul hath to know it."
preview | full record— Mason, John (1706-1763)
Date: 1745
"However, let us make the best use we can of that little light which Scripture and reason have let in upon this dark and important subject."
preview | full record— Mason, John (1706-1763)
Date: 1748, 1777
"They [these impressions] are not only placed in a full light themselves, but may throw light on their correspondent ideas, which lie in obscurity."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1748, 1754
"[T]his Perception is not a Creature of the Mind, but a Ray emanating directly from the Father of Lights, a fair genuine Stamp of his Hand, who impressed every vital and original Energy on the Mind"
preview | full record— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)
Date: 1748, 1754
"[T]he Relation we stand in to God, will irradiate the Mind with the Light of Wisdom, and ennoble it with the Liberty and Dominion of Virtue."
preview | full record— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)
Date: 1748, 1749
"I always use the word imagine, because I am of the opinion that everything is imagined, and that all the parts of the soul may be justly reduced to the imagination only, which forms them all; and thus the judgment, reason, and memory are not absolute faculties of the soul, but real modifications...
preview | full record— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)
Date: 1748, 1749
"Have we one argument of this sort to convince us that man alone is enlighten'd with the rays of reason, from which all other creatures are excluded?"
preview | full record— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)