Date: 1659

"As first the Frame of the Body, of which I think most reasonable to conclude the Soule her self to be the more particular Architect (for I will not wholly reject Plotinus his opinion;) and that the Plastick power resides in her, as also in the Soules of Brute animals, as very learned and worthy ...

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"For that the Soul should be the Vital Architect of her own house, that close connexion and sure possession she is to have of it, distinct and secure from the invasion of any other particular Soul, seems no slight Argument."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"And therefore it is the meer Imperium of our Soule that does determine the Spirits to this Muscle rather then the other, and holds them there in despite of externall force."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"But this makes little to the clearing of the manner of their descent ... which cannot be better understood, then by considering their Union with the Body generated, or indeed with any kinde of Body whatever, where the Soul is held captive, and cannot quit her self thereof by the free imperium of...

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"But no man can when he pleases pass out of his Body thus, by the Imperium of his Will, no more then he can walk in his Sleep: For this capacity is pressed down more deep into the lower life of the Soul, whither neither the Liberty of Will, nor free Imagination can reach."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"The Soul in her Aerial Vehicle is capable of Sense properly so called, and consequently of Pleasure and Pain."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"The Soul can neither impart to nor take away from the Matter of her Vehicle of Air any considerable degree of Motion, but yet can direct the particles moved which way she pleases by the Imperium of her Will."

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"But the difficulty now is, whether that Humane shape that the Soul transforms her Vehicle into, be simply the effect of the Imperium of her Will over the Matter she actuates, or that her Will may be in some measure limited or circumscribed in its effect by a concomitant exertion of the Plastick ...

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

Date: 1659

"Not that the Plastick virtue, awakened by the Imperium of her Will, shall renew all the lineaments it did in this Earthly Body (for abundance of them are useless and to no purpose, which therefore, Providence so ordaining, will be silent in this aiery figuration, and onely such operate as are fi...

— More, Henry (1614-1687)

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)