Date: Wednesday, June 27, 1711

"Not to be tedious, there is scarce any Emotion in the Mind which does not produce a suitable Agitation in the Fan; insomuch, that if I only see the Fan of a disciplin'd Lady, I know very well whether she laughs, frowns, or blushes."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1712

"Several of these little Hollows were stuffed with innumerable sorts of Trifles, which I shall forbear giving any particular Account of, and shall therefore only take Notice of what lay first and uppermost, which, upon our unfolding it and applying our Microscopes to it, appeared to be a Flame-co...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, March 29, 1712

"As Poetry delights in cloathing abstracted Ideas in Allegories and sensible Images, we find a magnificent Description of the Creation form'd after the same manner in one of the Prophets, wherein he describes the Almighty Architect as measuring the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand, meting out the...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, May 15, 1712

"It is extremely natural for us to desire to see such our Thoughts put into the Dress of Words, without which indeed we can scarce have a clear and distinct Idea of them our selves: When they are thus clothed in Expressions, nothing so truly shews us whether they are just or false, as those Effec...

— Budgell, Eustace (1686-1737)

Date: 1716

"We are gratify'd to see an unexpected Idea presented to our Understanding, and wonder at the beautiful Conjunction of Notions so separate and remote before; and whatever is marvellous is delightful too; as we always feel a Pleasure at the sight of Foreigners and their Garments, so the Mind rejoi...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: October 20, 1752

It is bad manners for Richardson's heroines to "declare all they think [since] fig leaves are necessary for our minds as our bodies."

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

Date: 1754

"Maecenas would laugh at any Irregularity in Horace's Dress, but not at any Caprice in his Behaviour, because it was common and fashionable: so a Man's Person, which is the Dress of his Soul, only is ridiculed, while the vicious Qualities of it escape."

— Hay, William (1695-1755)