Date: 1691

"Let it suffice, that my Soul for ought I know, has been Rambling the best part of this 6000 Years, if those are in the right on't who hold the Præexistence, and that all Souls were made at once.

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"All matter is in motion, and therefore perpetually chang'd and alter'd--now in how many shapes that little handful which makes up my Souls Luggage, has been formerly dress'd, I'll promise you, I'll not undertake to tell ye."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"This I say may be, and Graver folks than he have made a huge splutter with such a kind of business;--but I am apt to think (between Friends) if there be any thing in't, that most of the Lyoness Particles rambled somewhere else, to another Branch of the Family; and that more of the Sheep, the gen...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"How the greatest part on't is an arrant cheat, and a mischievous one besides,--how little a while we generally stay in't, and yet how unfit to go out on't;--all these Reflections are now so strongly imprinted on my mind, that indeed I wonder how I could be perswaded to come abroad into Light."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"She was the paragon of Perfection, and Loadstar of all Eyes and Hearts; and well might my Dear Father Travel seven years after her Death, before he Marryed agen, for had he don't, not seven, nor seventeen, nor seventy, but seven hundred, he'd ne're have lit upon such another."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Why just then, all of a sudden, before I cou'd say what's this, or knew where I was, my Noddle now swimming with a million of Fancies, (as I alwayes had a very working Brain,) and I not minding my way, in tumbled I into the River, hugging the waves so tenderly, you can't imagine."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"For as I was expatiating in Dungrove Fields, my Mind and Body rambling alike, neither cared or knew whether, I out of a Childish wantonness gathered a bearded Ear of Grass or Corn, and put it into my Throat, thrusting it down so far, that when I went to pull it up again, being against the grain,...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"This however I care not if I tell you--that the very hopes of Rambling, the Prospect of seeing a new Part of the World, or indeed a New World to me, striking upon the strings of my Soul, before wound to the same pitch, made most charming Musick, and had you seen then the young Evander--who now h...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"But while I was admiring their Skill and Harmony, I was so ravish'd with their Charming Musick; that cou'd you believe it, That I fell stark asleep under the Tree, and my Mind being full of the Idea's which were in my Head, e're I fell asleep, they seem'd still to continue their Discourse, which...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1704

"Erect your schemes with as much method and skill as you please; yet, if the materials be nothing but dirt, spun out of your own entrails (the guts of modern brains), the edifice will conclude at last in a cobweb; the duration of which, like that of other spiders’ webs, may be imputed to their be...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)