Date: September 17, 1726
"This Train of Images continually revolv'd in our young Parson's Brain; and to preserve them from being jostled out by any intruding Foreigners, who might dispossess the Original Orthodox Inhabitants, the first Link of the Chain was rivetted by Pride, and the two last closed up by those two insep...
preview | full record— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)
Date: 1726
"To remember where he enters in the succession, they only consider in what part of the cabinet he lies; and by runinng over in their thoughts such a particular drawer, will give you an account of all the remarkable parts of his reign."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: 1727
"The Soul of the Murther'd Person seeks no Revenge; all that Part is swallowed up in the Wonders of the eternal State, and Vengeance entirely resign'd to him to whom it belongs; but the Soul of the Murtherer is like the Ocean in a Tempest, he is in continual Motion, restless and raging; and the G...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: Friday, February 24, 1727
"IT is an old established Maxim in Politicks, that a true-bred Statesman should have no private Passions; that is, He ought to be a Man of such a sedate, steddy, and determined Temper, that he may not be interrupted, in the Conduct of his Schemes and the Pursuit of his Interest, by those light an...
preview | full record— Caleb d'Anvers [pseud. for Nicholas Amhurst, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke, and William Pulteney, Earl of Bath]
Date: 1730
"It is hard for a reader, who has not rolled this thought in his own mind, to follow in such an abstracted speculation."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: 1732
"But the free-thinker, with a vigorous flight of thought, breaks through those airy springes, and asserts his original independency."
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1733
"May not the sentient Principle have its Seat in some Place in the Brain, where the Nerves terminate, like the Musician shut up in his Organ-Room? May not the infinite Windings, Convolutions, and Complications of the Beginning of the Nerves which constitute the Brain, serve to d...
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: 1734
"How shall the Wheel of the Imagination that's continually in motion, be either stop'd or regulated?"
preview | full record— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)
Date: 1737
""Alas, my soul! thou pleasing companion of this body, thou fleeting thing that art now deserting it! whither art thou flying? to what unknown scene? all trembling, fearful, and pensive! what now is become of thy former wit and humour? thou shalt jest and be gay no more."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1737
"I have been lying in wait for my own imagination this week and more, and watching what thoughts came up in the whirl of the fancy, that were worth communicating to you in a letter."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)