Date: 1700

"We seldome use our Liberty aright, / Nor Judge of Things by Universal Light; / Our Prepossessions and Affections bind / The Soul in Chains, and Lord it o're the Mind."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Reason, 'tis true, shou'd over Sense Preside, / Correct our Notions, and our Judgment Guide; / But false Opinions, rooted in the Mind, / Hoodwink the Soul, and keep our Reason Blind."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Reason's a Taper, which but faintly burns, / A languid Flame that glows and dyes by Turns; / We see't a while, and but a little Way, / We Travel by its Light as Men by Day."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"But quickly Dying, [reason] forsakes us soon, / Like Morning Stars, that never stay till Noon."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

"Better the Mind no Notions had retain'd, / But still a fair Unwritten Blank remain'd; / For now, who Truth from Falshood wou'd discern; / must first disrobe the Mind, and all Unlearn."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700

The "Trading Mind" must voyage over an Ocean, but "Resisting Rocks oppose th' Inquiring Soul, / And adverse Waves retard it as they Rowl."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1700, 1705

"Let either side abate of their Demands, / And both submit to Reason's high Commands, / For which way ere the Conquest shall encline, / The Loss Britannia will at last be thine."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit, like a hasty Flood, may over-run us, / And too much Sense has oftentimes undone us."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit is a Flux, a Looseness of the Brain, / And Sense-abstract has too much Pride to reign."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1700, 1705

"Abstracted-Wit 'Tis own'd is a Disease, / But Sense-abstracted has no Power to please."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)