Date: January, 1754; 1791

"[B]affled here / By his omnipotence Philosophy / Slowly her thoughts inadequate revolves, / And stands, with all his circling wonders round her, / Like heavy Saturn in th'etherial space / Begirt with an inexplicable ring."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1757

"Whatever turns the soul inward upon itself, tends to concenter forces, and to fit it for greater and stronger flights of science."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1760-7

"A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho' I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind, and my opinion rather is, that there is something in it more of the manner of elect...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"The more my uncle Toby pored over his map, the more he took a liking to it;--by the same process and electrical assimilation, as I told you, thro' which I ween the souls of connoisseurs themselves, by long friction and incumbition, have the happiness, at length, to get all be-virtu'd,--...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1763

"The heart of a woman does, I imagine, naturally gravitate towards a handsome, well-dressed, well-bred fellow, without enquiry into his mental qualities."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1764

"His [Newton's] regulae philosophandi are maxims of common sense, and are practised every day in common life; and he who philosophizes by other rules, either concerning the material system, or concerning the mind, mistakes his aim."

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)

Date: Published serially, 1765-1770

"These ever apparent Ensigns of so dearly purchased Benefits shall inevitably attract the Wills of all Creatures, they shall cause all Hearts and Affections to rush and cleave to him, as Steel Dust rushes to Adamant, and as Spokes stick in the Nave whereon they are centred."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1770

"The passions are the true counterweights of the passions."

— Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, Baron d' (1723-89)

Date: 1770

"The word 'sentiment' has, of late years, been much used by some writers, to signify, not a formed opinion, notion, or principle, (which seems to be the true, and the old English sense), but an internal impulse of passion, affection, fancy, or intellect, which is to be considered rather as the ca...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1771

Speaking one's mind is "a publishing of some Energie or Motion" of the soul

— Harris, James (1709-1780)