Date: 1741

"Cornelius quickly discovered, that these two last operations of the intellect were very weak in Martin, and almost totally extinguish'd in Crambe; however he used to say that Rules of Logick are Spectacles to a purblind understanding, and therefore he resolved to proceed with his two Pupils."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744); Arbuthnot, John (bap. 1677, d. 1735)

Date: 1745

"These were Virtues unknown to him, who like the Ungrateful lessen'd the Obligations he had to her, by viewing his own Merit in the flattering Glass, his Fancy held before him. This false Mirror soon turn'd the Scale in his Favour, attributing her Choice of him to his own good Sense, which had Ar...

— Anonymous

Date: 1749

"Which, among other Things, may serve as a Comment on that Saying of Æschines, that Drunkenness shews the Mind of a Man, as a Mirror reflects his Person."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1752

"[H]er Vanity therefore retreated into her Mind, where there is no Looking-Glass, and consequently where we can flatter ourselves with discovering almost whatever Beauties we pleas"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1752

Behavior is the optic glass that makes visible what passes in the mind

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1754

"But in this we are much kinder to our sense than to our intellect; for in order to assist the former we use glasses and spectacles of all kinds adapted to our deficiency of sight, whereas in the latter we are so far from accepting the assistance of mental glasses or spectacles, that we often str...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"Yet such horrid thoughts, my sister, have risen in your Amanda's breast, but thanks to the mercy and grave of my redeemer, they past hastily through my bosom, and from the extreme wretchedness of my earthly situation (for surely no torment can be greater to a tender heart, than the breaking up a...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1756, 1766

"I will love thee therefore, O Lord, my strength; yea, I will love thee: and it ever shall be my heart's desire, that my soul may behold by faith in its self, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, able and ready to change it into the same image from glory to glory, reflected upon, and conveyed to...

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

Date: 1756, 1766

From "the natural lights of our understanding" we have the highest reason to conclude we will be rewarded or punished in the afterlife

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

Date: 1756, 1766

God may cast his "bright beams of light upon our souls, and irradiate our understandings with the rays of ... wisdom"

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)