Date: 1723

"Can'st say what diff'rent Turns the Spirits take, / When they of diff'rent Kinds Impressions make; / What vital Springs those Spirits in their Flight / Strike to cause Torment, what to give Delight."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1724

"The sudden Gusts of these Passions being thus accounted for, when they become extreme they drive about the Blood with such a Hurricane, that Nature is overset, like a Mill by a Flood: So that what drove it only quicker round before, now intirely stops it, and renders the Countenance pale and gha...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1725

"In Pieces took here we are shewn the whole / Clock-work and Mechanism of the Soul; / May see the Movements, Labyrinths, and Strings, / Its Wires, and Wheels, and Balances, and Springs; / How 'tis wound up to its full Height, and then / What checks, and stops, and settles it again."

— Glanvil, John (1664-1735)

Date: 1725

"So delicate's the Texture of her Brain, / We wish it less refin'd, and nearer Man; / For weak's the Clock with over-curious Springs, / And frail the Voice that too divinely sings"

— Sterling, James

Date: September 10, 1726

"First then I lay down, as an undeniable Truth, that we have in common with other Animals a certain Machine of a curious and exquisite Workmanship, the principal Springs whereof are Imagination and Memory."

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

Date: September 10, 1726

"To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occ...

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

Date: September 17, 1726

"I have now, Sir, laid open to you the Faculties of the Mind, and shewn that those of most Men consist but in a mechanical Operation, as well as those of other Animals."

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

Date: 1727

"To see a Fool, a Fop, believe himself inspir'd, a Fellow that washes his Hands fifty times a-day, but if he would be truly cleanly, should have his Brains taken out and wash'd, his Scull Trapan'd, and plac'd with the hind-side before, that his Understanding, which Nature plac'd by Mistake, with ...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1728

"Is not such a rational Benevolence more agreeable to rational Natures, and more meritorious than a blind Instinct that we have in common with inferior Creatures, and which operates, as it were, mechanically, both on their Minds and ours?"

— Balguy, John (1686-1748)

Date: 1728 (1733)

"If the several Members, and the constituent Parts of this curious Machine, which the Mind always carries about her, have a brisk uniform Motion, and be so ballanc'd and adjusted as easily to perform all the Animal Functions, this gives a Briskness and Vivacity to the Mind, and entertains her wit...

— Campbell, Archibald (1691-1756)