Date: 1710

"He should set afoot the powerfullest faculties of his mind, and assemble the best forces of his wit and judgment, in order to make a formal descent on the territories of the heart; resolving to decline no combat, nor hearken to any terms, till he had pierced into its inmost provinces and reached...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1711

"While Passions in their Breasts ungovern'd rage, / Distract the Mind, and War intestine wage, / Reason divine from her high Throne descends, / Lays by her Scepter, and her Pow'r suspends."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Should you presumptuous, quit your safer Ground, / And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound, / And on the Frontier to engage the Foe, With Reason 's weak collected Forces go, / You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass, / Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace, / In her soft ...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

Descartes "advises every one that wou'd perfect his Reason, and arrive at the Knowledge of undisguised Truth, to shake off the Prepossessions and Prejudices of his Infancy and Youth; to wipe, brush, or sweep his Soul clean of the very Dust and Relicks left behind on our Faculties, by these first ...

— Marana, Giovanni Paolo (1642-1693)

Date: 1731

"It must needs follow from hence, that Knowledge is an Inward and Active Energy of the Mind it self, and the displaying of its own Innate Vigour from within, whereby it doth Conquer, Master and Command its Objects, and so begets a Clear, Serene, Victorious, and Satisfactory Sense within it self."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1735

" What cruel Dæmon haunts my tortur'd Mind? / Sure, if 'twere Love, I shou'd th'Invader find;"

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1740

"Thus lawless conquerors our town restore, / With the sad marks of their inhuman power; / No art, nor time, such ravage can repair; / No superstructure can these ruins bear."

— Dixon, Sarah (1671/2-1765)

Date: 1740, 1742

Pamela is apt to look upon sheepishness "as an outward Fence or Inclosure, as I may say, to his Virtue, which might keep off the lighter Attacks of Immorality, the Hussars of Vice, as I may say, who are not able to carry on a formal Siege against his Morals"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741

"But such is the nature of the human mind, that it always lays hold on every mind that approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified by an unanimity of sentiments, so is it shocked and disturbed by any contrariety."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1744, 1753

"But David, altho' the Picture of what Valentine and Cynthia must feel, on hearing such News, was deeply imprinted in his Imagination, and made a strong Effort to subdue his Mind; yet did he preserve Steadiness enough to conquer his own Passions, to comfort his Camilla, and again to restore his l...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)