Date: 1612

"Another part became the well of sense, / The tender well-arm'd feeling brain, from whence / Those sinewy strings, which do our bodies tie, / Are ravelled out, and fast there by one end, / Did this soul limbs, these limbs a soul attend."

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1632

"Looke as it is with a Gold smith that melteth the metall that he is to make a vessell of, if after the melting thereof, there follow a cooling, it had beene as good it had never beene melted, it is as hard, haply harder, as unfit, haply unfitter, then it was before to make vessell of; but after ...

— Hooker, Richard (1554-1600)

Date: 1641

"As Lots wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, that her inconstancie might be fixt, and yet be melting still: So, thou, my Soule, if I had my wish, shouldst be turned into a Pillar of Thoughts; that thy volubility might be restrain'd, and yet be thinking still."

— Baker, Richard, Sir (c. 1568-1645)

Date: 1661

"Then is the Soul fit to be wrought upon, / And to receive Heav'ns seal's impression."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1661

"The Microcosm, little world, or Man, / Containeth all the outward great world can."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1667

"How vain a thing is Man, whose noblest part, / That Soul which through the World doth rome, / Traverses Heav'n, finds out the depth of Art, / Yet is so ignorant at home?"

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"I wonder not to find those that know most, / Profess so much their Ignorance; / Since in their own Souls greatest Wits are lost, / And of themselves have scarce a glance."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"A Soul self-mov'd which can dilate, contract, / Pierces and judges things unseen: / But this gross heap of Matter cannot act, / Unless impulsed from within."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"So unconcern'd she lives, so much above / The Rubbish of a sordid Jail, / That nothing doth her Energy improve / So much as when those structures fail."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"It is our narrow thoughts shorten these things, / By their companion Flesh inclin'd; / Which feeling its own weakness gladly brings / The same opinion to the Mind."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)