Date: 1689

"In vain they strive your glorious Lamp to hide / In that dark Lanthorn to all noble minds, / Which, through the smallest cranny is descry'd, / Whose force united no resistance finds"

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)

Date: 1691

"The Sense deceivs us, and like Painted Glass / Tinges all Objects, that do thrô it pass."

— Heyrick, Thomas (bap. 1649. d. 1694)

Date: 1692

"But when dilated organs let in day / To the young soul, and gave it room to play, / At his first aptness, the maternal love / Those rudiments of reason did improve."

— 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

"Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns, / A languid Flame that glows and dyes by Turns; / We see't a while, and but a little Way, / We Travel by its Light as Men by Day."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"But quickly Dying, [reason] forsakes us soon, / Like Morning Stars, that never stay till Noon."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1703

Souls are "Like Tapers hid in Urns they shine. / The Life of Sense and Growth we only see, / Which Beasts enjoy as well as we."

— Chudleigh [née Lee], Mary, Lady Chudleigh (bap. 1656, d. 1710)

Date: 1711

Popes, "Who, as erroneus, Nature's Light asperse; / The Judgment, which our Senses pass, reverse; / And by th' usurp'd Authority of Heav'n / Repeal the just Decrees by Reason given: / Who Schemes of new Religion have enjoined, / Impos'd Belief, enslav'd the free-born Mind, / And artful by the man...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)