Date: 1762

"The like false reckoning of time may proceed from an opposite state of mind. In a reverie, where ideas float at random without making any impression, time goes on unheeded and the reckoning is lost."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)

"When the senses are gently and naturally shut up, and the command over the body intermitted, as in sleep, if we think at all we are said to dream; and generally wander through airy tracks of thought, which have no agreement with each other, nor are at all corrected by the judgment."

— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)

Date: 1765

"I said that the prayers in the Common Prayer Book were such as were made by other men, and not by the motions of the Holy Ghost, within our hearts; and as I said, the apostle saith, he will pray with the Spirit, and with the understanding; not with the Spirit and the Common Prayer Book."

— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)

Date: 1766

"A 'vision', passes, inwardly, in the mind; and, is supposed to be, only, an action of the imagination. An 'apparition', strikes the senses, outwardly, and, is supposed to be, an object from without."

— Trusler, John (1735-1820)

Date: 1767

"Thus it appears to be in every respect a proper counterbalance to the RAMBLING and VOLATILE power of IMAGINATION. The one, perpetually attempting to soar, is apt to deviate into the mazes of error; while the other arrests the wanderer in its vagrant course, and compels it to follow the path of n...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"The conversation-wits resemble those persons, whose ideas pass through their minds in too quick succession to be distinct; but who, nevertheless, being endued with a natural volubility of expression, acquit themselves to admiration in company; while one is at a loss to find either sense or gramm...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"By this means it happens, that though the principles of a just Taste are implanted in the mind of every man of Genius, yet, by a neglect of proper cultivation, or too great an indulgence of the extravagant ramblings of Fancy, those principles are vitiated, and Taste becomes sometimes INCORRECT,...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Conscious of its native energy, it delights to expand its faculties by the most vigorous exertion, Ranging through the unbounded regions of nature and of art, it explores unbeaten tracks of thought, catches a glimpse of some objects which lie far beyond the sphere of ordinary observation, and ob...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"A Writer however, of the kind last mentioned, instead of tracing the footsteps of his predecessors, will allow his imagination to range over the field of Invention, in quest of its materials; and, from the group of figures collected by it, will strike out a character like his own Genius, perfect...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Whether this quality is to be ascribed to the cause above-mentioned in particular; or whether it is the effect of that fiery impetuosity of Imagination, which, breaking through the legal restraints of criticism, or overleaping the mounds of authority and custom, sometimes loses sight of the Just...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)