Date: September 17, 1726
"I Need not expatiate upon other Characters; for I have too good an Opinion of your Readers, to doubt of their beginning now to be sensible that most Men speak and act but from a fortuitous Concourse of Images, or a Train of them stored up in the Brain."
preview | full record— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)
Date: September 17, 1726
"I have now, Sir, laid open to you the Faculties of the Mind, and shewn that those of most Men consist but in a mechanical Operation, as well as those of other Animals."
preview | full record— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)
Date: April 30, 1730
"The spirit of the brain, distilled by the heat of the imagination, like some chemical preparations, when exposed to the air, is apt to smoke, to take fire, to crack, and bounce, to the no small disturbance of the neighbourhood."
preview | full record— Richard Russel and John Martyn
Date: April 30, 1730
"Nay, the very insipid phlegm, and even the caput mortuum of the brain, after this chemical operation, being mixed with ink, and spred upon paper, have the same combustible, noisy qualities, with the spirits themselves."
preview | full record— Richard Russel and John Martyn
Date: April 30, 1730
"I have often been concerned at the ill success of my worthy friend the CANTABRIGIAN PHILOSOPHER; who happening to jar the string in the harmony of human understanding, among those, who were below his own height; they, instead of subscribing to his doctrine, were for tying him fast, and sending h...
preview | full record— Richard Russel and John Martyn
Date: August 12, 1738, to Nov. 1, 1739 [1748]
"Therefore the Eyes of my Understanding are not yet open'd, but the Old Veil is still upon my Heart."
preview | full record— Wesley, John (1703-1791)
Date: August 12, 1738, to Nov. 1, 1739 [1748]
"As to the Outward Manner You speak of, wherein most of them were affected who were cut to the Heart by the Sword of Spirit, no wonder that this was at first surprising to You, since they are indeed so very rare, that have been thus prick'd and wounded."
preview | full record— Wesley, John (1703-1791)
Date: February 4, 1752
"When we are employed in reading a great and good Author, we ought to consider ourselves as searching after Treasures, which, if well and regularly laid up in the Mind, will be of use to us on sundry Occasions in our Lives."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: February 18, 1752
"A Good Name, says the Dramatic Poet, is the immediate Jewel of a Man's Soul."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: March 24, 1752
"The Mind of Man is compared by Montaigne to a fertile Field, which tho' it be left entirely uncultivated, still retains all its genial Powers; but instead of producing any Thing lovely or profitable, sends forth only Weeds and wild Herbs of various Kinds, which serve to no Use or Emolument whats...
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)