Date: 1779
"A man's natural inclination works incessantly upon him ... The force of the greatest gravity, say the philosophers, is infinitely small, in comparison of that of the least impulse: yet it is certain, that the smallest gravity will, in the end, prevail above a great impulse; because no strokes or...
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1780-85; in French, 36 vols. 1749-1788
"Is it difficult to perceive that our ideas originate from our senses alone; that the objects we regard as real existences, are those concerning which the senses uniformly give the same testimony."
preview | full record— Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788)
Date: [1782]
"I have already mentioned the BRAIN as the Capital Organ of all Sensation, and from it the Nerves all originate."
preview | full record— Martin, Benjamin (bap. 1705, d. 1782)
Date: [1782]
"I must now further observe to you, that the Brain is also the Seat or Residence of the MIND or SOUL of the Animal.--That it is the Grand Emporium of all Intelligence, and of all Ideas and Species of external Objects presented there by the Nerves."
preview | full record— Martin, Benjamin (bap. 1705, d. 1782)
Date: 1785
"While in high life our hearts the fashions steel, / Too gay to listen, and too fine to feel--"
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)
Date: 1785
"I was surpriz'd, taken unawares, passion ran away with me like an unbroke horse: but I have got him under now; I can govern him with a twine of thread."
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)
Date: 1788
"When sovereign Reason from her throne is hurl'd, / And with her all the subject senses whirl'd, / From sweet HUMANITY, the nurse of grief, / Even thy deep woes, O Phrenzy! find relief."
preview | full record— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Date: 1788
Humanity "Assists thy roving fancy in its flight, / To crown thy airy sallies with delight."
preview | full record— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Date: 1788
"An healing balm to thy warp'd sense she brings, / Till from her softness magic comfort springs, / And joys which reason with a frown denies, / Her tender pity with a smile supplies."
preview | full record— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Date: 1788
"Ah! think not, WHITE, the Muse from fancy brings / Those woes, for Hist'ry sanctions what she sings, / Her bloody Annals still does Truth unfold, / Stain'd with the victims of soul-spotting gold."
preview | full record— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)