Date: 1716

"O then, from such Idolatry refrain, To worship the Chimeras of your Brain."

— Anonymous

Date: 1717

One may strive "On every Subject's Heart to seal his Love ... What Breast so hard? what Heart of human make, / But softning did the kind Impression take?"

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1717

"I render back the Treasure of thy Heart: / When in some new fair Breast it finds a Room, And I shall lie neglected in my Tomb; / Remember, oh! remember, the fair She / Can never love thee, darling Youth! like me."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1717

"This notion leads to universal necessity and fate, by supposing that motives have the same relation to the will of an intelligent agent, as weights have to a balance; so that of two things absolutely indifferent, and intelligent agent can no more choose either, than a balance can move itself whe...

— Leibniz, G. W. (1646-1716) and Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729)

Date: 1717

"But Man would yet look wondrous wise. / And equal Chains of Thought devise."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"So very well Sweetheart; I am mightily troubled with Phlegm--od I took it a little too high for my Constitution, but every time I look upon you, I fancy my self but Eighteen, and my Heart springs in my Belly like a Bird in a Cage."

— Bullock, Christopher (bap. 1690, d. 1722)

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, 1736

"As into air the purer spirits flow, / And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below; / So flew the soul to its congenial place"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: w. 1718 [first published 1907]

"All this says Richard is but Nonsense / For whats the Will without the Conscience / That mighty Pow'r by whom the thought / Is from Kings Bench to Chanc'ry brought. / What Seat for Her have You assign'd / When She may view and sway the mind?"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"And yet, slap dash, is All again / In every Sinew, Nerve, and Vein. / [the mind] Runs here and there, like Hamlet's Ghost; / While every where She rules the roast."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)