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Date: c. 1603

"But do you suppose, when all the approaches and entrances to men's minds are beset and blocked by the most obscure idols -- idols deeply implanted and, as it were, burned in -- that any clean and polished surface remains in the mirror of the mind on which the genuine natural light of things can ...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

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Date: 1652

"He did not antedate his own knowledge, nor remember the several postures of his soul, and the famous exploits of his minde before he was born; but plainly profest that his understanding came naked into the world. He shews you an [...], an abrasa tabula, a virgin-soul espousing it self to the bod...

— Culverwell, Nathanael (bap. 1619, d. 1651)

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Date: 1652

"Ne're tell us that you wanted origanical dispositions, for you plainly have recourse to the sensitive powers, and must needs subscribe to this, that al knowledg comes flourishing in at these lattices. Why else should not your Candle enlighten you before? who was it that chained up; and fettered ...

— Culverwell, Nathanael (bap. 1619, d. 1651)

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Date: 1658

"The Alc'ran sayes, (which who will may beleeve) / The Moon descended into Mahomet's sleeve: / 'Tis strange! yet God doth his loves lamp impart / T'a more coarcted room, what's that? the heart."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

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Date: 1667, 1710

"O be at leisure to look within, and get David's Candle and Lanthorn to go into those dark Corners of your Soul with it, and it may be you may see that within which may make your Heart to ake, and your Joints to quiver, and your Spirits to faint within you."

— Janeway, James (1636?-1674)

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Date: 1686

"My Guts are grumbling a kind of Tune, Like the Base Pipes of an Organ: I am starv'd into a Substance so thin, that my Body is transparent; you may see my heart, and the appurtenances, hang up here in its mortal Closet, as easily as a Candle in a Lanthorn."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

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Date: 1686

"I am starv'd into a Substance so thin, that my Body is transparent; you may see my heart, and the appurtenances, hang up here in its mortal Closet, as easily as a Candle in a Lanthorn."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

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Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

Internal and external sensation, "These alone, as far as I can discover, are the windows by which light is let into this dark room: For methinks the understanding is not much unlike a closet wholly shut from light, with only some little openings left, to let in external visible resemblances, or i...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

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Date: 1691

"As the Eyes are the Windows to let in the Species of all exterior Objects into the dark Cels of the Brain, for the information of the Soul; so are they flaming Torches to reveal to those abroad how the Soul within is moved or affected."

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

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Date: 1691

"Thirdly, Let us hence duly learn to prize and value our Souls; is the Body such a rare Piece, what this is the Soul? the Body is but the Husk or Shell, the Soul is the Kernel; the Body is but the Cask, the Soul the precious Liquor contained in it; the Body is but the Cabinet; the Soul the Jewel;...

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

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