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Date: 1664

"Indeed, one may compare the nerves of the machine I am describing with the pipes in the works of these fountains, its muscles and tendons with the various devices and springs which serve to set them in motion, its animal spirits with the water which drives them, the heart with the source of the ...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

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Date: 1664

"And finally, when a rational soul is present in this machine it will have its principal seat in the brain, and reside there like the fountain-keeper who must be stationed at the tanks to which the fountain's pipes return if he wants to produce, or prevent, or change their movements in some way."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

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Date: 1664

"Now I maintain that when God unites a rational soul to this machine (in a way that I intend to explain later) he will place its principal seat in the brain, and will make its nature such that the soul will have different sensations corresponding to the different ways in which the entrances to th...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

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Date: 1664

"But I shall content myself with telling you more about how the traces are imprinted on the internal part of the brain which is the seat of the memory."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

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Date: 1664

"Thus they also trace figures in these gaps, which correspond to those of the objects. At first they do this less easily and perfectly than they do on gland H, but gradually they do it better and better, as their action becomes stronger and lasts longer, or is repeated more often. That is why the...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

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Date: 1664

"So that it seems, this Cottage of Clay, with all its Furniture within it, was but made in subserviency to the Animal Spirits; for the extraction, separation, and depuration of which, the whole Body, and all the Organs and Utensils therein are but instrumentally contrived, and preparatorily desig...

— Power, Henry (1623-1668)

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Date: 1664

"First, therefore we affirm, that this thin and spirituous matter, which is called the Animal Spirits, is the immediate Instrument of the Soul, in all her operations both of Sense and Motion."

— Power, Henry (1623-1668)

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Date: 1664

"So that when she has locked up the doors of this Laboratory the Body, she may be busie in augmenting, repairing, and regenerating all the Organs and Utensils within, and painting and plaistring the Walls without."

— Power, Henry (1623-1668)

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Date: 1665

"The accent of one's birthplace persists in the mind and heart as much as in speech."

— La Rochefoucauld, François, duc de (1613-1680)

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Date: 1665

"But as though grains of Sand and Ashes be a part, but of a despicable smallness, and very easie, and liable to be scatter'd, and blown away; yet the skilful Artificer, by a vehement Fire, brings Numbers of these to afford him that noble substance, Glass, by whose help we may both see our selves,...

— Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.