Date: 1605, 1640

"By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of thi...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1685

"These bugbears of the mind, this inward hell, / No rays of outward sunshine can dispel; / But nature and right reason must display / Their beams abroad, and bring the darksome soul to day."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1697

"But he Employ'd to set their Judgments right, / No Force but Reason's mild but powerful Light."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1697

"Oh, let no groundless Prejudice oppose / The Light, that from so pure a Fountain flows. / May these kind Beams dispel the Clouds, and find / An unobstructed Passage to your Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1697

"Then climbs the Mind to the first glorious Cause, / And his bright Image by this Model draws. / Freedom of Choice, pure Intellectual Light, / Power Independent, Goodness Infinite, / To form the great Idea we unite."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1700

"The Lamp of Life burns dimly in my Breast, / Soon from its beating toil my weary Heart will rest."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1700, 1717

"He, tho' from Heav'n remote, to Heav'n cou'd move, / With Strength of Mind, and tread th' Abyss above; / And penetrate with his interior Light / Those upper Depths, which Nature hid from Sight"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1706

"There glides the moon her shining way, / And shoots my heart thro' with a silver ray."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"Just so the Head of Man contains within / The Intellect, with Rays and Light Divine."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"The Heart, the Center of the manly Breast, / Just like the Sun, in lovely Purple drest, / Diffuses all the Liquid Crimson round, / Whence Life, and Vigour, Heat and Strength abound."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)