Date: 1727

"Conscience draws the Picture of the Crime in Apparition just before him, and the Reflection, not the injur'd Soul, is the Spectre that haunts him: Nor can he need a worse Tormenter in this Life; whether there is a worse hereafter, or no, I do not pretend to determine. This is certainly 'a Worm t...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"I answer, he was harrass'd by the Reflection of his own Guilt, and the Sluices of the Soul were set open by the Angels or Spirits attending, and who by Divine Appointment are always at hand to execute the vindictive Part of Justice, as well as the more merciful Dispensations of Heaven, when they...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"These abandon'd him to the Fury of an enrag'd Conscience, open'd the Sluices of the Soul, as I call them, and pour'd in a Flood of unsufferable Grief, letting loose those wild Beasts call'd Passions upon him, such as Rage, Anguish, Self-reproach, too late Repentance, and final Desperation, all t...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"This is bringing the Matter into a narrow Compass, and putting an end to Cavil and Quarrel about it; there is no need to wrangle upon it any more; but when you at any time see an Apparition, or Appearance of Spirit assuming Shape and Voice, and you are sure it is really an Apparition, not a Dece...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"Homer's Notion of the State of the Dead, was something like the ancient Philosophy of the Aegyptians, which gave the Soul a Shape like the Body, and that it was only a Receptacle of the Mind; the Mind they made to be the sublime and superior Part, and that only."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"They imagin'd that the Soul was not only separated by Death from the Body, but that there was a Separation of the Understanding from its Case or Vehicle, as they call'd it; so that the Soul, which was but the Image and Form of the Body, might be in Hell; the Body it self burnt to Ashes remain'd ...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"The Doctrine of the Soul's being a Shell or Case form'd into a Shape, as a Mould is form'd into Shape to receive the Brass or Copper, and throw out a Statue or Figure of this or that Heroe, which it is appointed to form; I say, this absurd Doctrine of the Soul, Body and Mind being three distinct...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"It were easie to confute these weak pretences to Chance and Incident, and to show the necessity of an intelligent Being; but that is not my work: I am not upon the Reality of such an intelligent Being, but the Reality of its ordinary and extraordinary actings, the Agents it employs, and the mann...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"But 'tis easily solv'd, by answering that it is but a seeming Contradiction, for both the Apparitions are visible, only not to the same Optick Powers; the Apparition in Dream is visible to the intellectual sight, to the Eye of the Soul; and the Day-light Apparition is visible to the common ordin...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1727

"All the way as he walk'd his Mind was heavy, and oppress'd; and he frequently said to his Brother who walk'd with him, that he was certain he was going to London to be surpriz'd: and so strong was the foreboding Impression upon his Mind, that he once stop'd at Hornsey, and endeavoured to get a L...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)