Date: 1717

"Yet he no rustic clownishness profest, / Nor was soft love a stranger to his breast"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: January 16, 1717

"Madam, excuse this Absence of Mind; my animal Spirits had deserted the Avenues of my Senses, and retired to the Recesses of the Brain, to contemplate a beautiful Idea. I could not force the vagrant Creatures back again into their Posts, to move those Parts of the Body that express Civility."

— Gay, John (1685-1732); Pope, Alexander (1688-1744); Arbuthnot, John (bap. 1677, d. 1735)

Date: 1717

"Against my self my rebel Passions arm; / They bound within my Breast to meet this Victor."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1718

"For from most Bodies, Dick, You know,/ Some little Bits ask Leave to flow; / And, as thro' these Canals They roll, / Bring up a Sample of the Whole. / Like Footmen running before Coaches, / To tell the Inn, what Lord approaches."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"A thousand little Nerves She sends / Quite to our Toes, and Fingers Ends; / And These in Gratitude again / Return their Spirits to the Brain; / In which their Figure being printed / (As just before, I think, I hinted) / Alma inform'd can try the Case, / As She had seen upon the Place. // Thus, w...

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

The mind is like "The Pope [who] prays and sleeps at Rome, / And very seldom stirs from Home: / Yet sending forth his Holy Spies, / And having heard what They advise, / He rules the Church's blest Dominions; / And sets Men's Faith by His Opinions."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"The Brain contains ten thousand Cells: / In each some active Fancy dwells; / Which always is at Work, and framing / The several Follies I was naming."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"Whilst, as my System says, the Mind / Is to these upper Rooms confin'd."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"Sham Miracles beyond what Poets feign; And legendary Fables crowd her Brain."

— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)

Date: 1718

"Inmate Divine! Celestial Guest! / Who dost inhabit every pious Breast"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)