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Date: 1706 [first published 1658]

"Volition, (in Philos.) the Act of Willing, an Act of the Mind when it knowingly exercises that Dominion it takes to it self over any Part of the Man, by employing such a Faculty in, or withholding it from any particular Action."

— Phillips, Edward (1630-1696)

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Date: 1706 [first published 1658]

"To Retain, to keep, or hold back a thing once deliver'd and afterwards demanded again; to preserve such good or bad Qualities as one had formerly; to keep in Mind, or to remember."

— Phillips, Edward (1630-1696)

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Date: Wednesday, June 18, 1712

"The strange and absurd Variety that is so apparent in Men's Actions, shews plainly they can never proceed immediately from Reason; so pure a Fountain emits no such troubled Waters: They must necessarily arise from the Passions, which are to the Mind as the Winds to a Ship, they only can move it,...

— Anonymous

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Date: Monday, May 25, 1724

"The Mind of Will. Weathercock is like the Sail of a great Ship, that has Room, to contain much Wind; but, having none, of its own producing, is swell'd out, by Turns, from all the Quarters of the Compass."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

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Date: 1731

"And therefore it [the soul] is not present with it only as a Mariner with a Ship, that is, meerly Locally, or knowingly and unpassionately present, they still continuing two distinct Things; but it is vitally united to it, and passionately present with it. And therefore when the Body is hurt, th...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

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Date: 1738

A person may be called the same person by "a continual Superaddition of the like Consciousness ... Just as a Ship is called the same Ship, after the whole Substance is changed by frequent Repairs; or a River is called the same River, though the Water of it be every Day new."

— Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729)

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Date: 1758

"As you would not wish to sail in a large, and finely decorated, and gilded Ship, and sink: so neither is it eligible to inhabit a grand and sumptuous House, and be in a Storm [of Passions and Cares]."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

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Date: 1785

"To apply his great mind to minute particulars, is wrong: it is like taking an immense balance, such as is kept on quays for weighing cargoes of ships, to weigh a guinea. I knew I had neat little scales, which would do better; and that his attention to every thing which falls in his way, and his ...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

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Date: 1789

"Then he assured me, that one sin unatoned for was as sufficient to damn a soul as one leak was to sink a ship."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

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Date: 1789

"One day I was standing on the very edge of the stern of the ship, thinking to drown myself; but this scripture was instantly impressed on my mind--'That no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him'."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.