Date: 1661

"What difference is there 'twixt a man and beast, / (None sure at all, or little to be guest) / If't wan't for Reason, and an immortal spark, / Which hides it self within his hollow Ark?"

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1673

Modest "is indeed a vertu of a general influence; does not only ballast the mind with sober and humble thoughts of ones self, but also steers every part of the outward frame."

— Allestree, Richard (1611/2-1681)

Date: 1687

"This Heart of mine, now wreck'd upon despair, / Was once as free and careless as the Air; / In th' early Morning of my tender years, / E're I was sensible of Hopes and Fears, / It floated in a Sea of Mirth and Ease, / And thought the World was only made to please; / No adverse Wind had ever stop...

— Cutts, John, Baron Cutts of Gowran (1660/1-1707)

Date: 1691

"This Voyage round the World was made in the Ship of Fancy, which every one knows, like the Cossaks Boats, sails as well by Land as Water.--And now I hope you are satisfied."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"This Cobler having been drinking till his Brains were shipwrackt in a deluge of Canary, yet unable with all that Liquor to quench his Nose, which appeared so flaming, that when he was smoaking, it could not be discerned by the most critical Eye, at which end his Pipe burned with the more red-hot...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1700

The "Trading Mind" must voyage over an Ocean, but "Resisting Rocks oppose th' Inquiring Soul, / And adverse Waves retard it as they Rowl."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1745

"Let clear-ey'd reason at the helm preside, / Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide: / Then mirth may urge when reason can explore, / This point the way, that waft us to the shore."

— Brown, John (1715-1766)

Date: April 1750, 1791

"'Tis then, nor sooner, that the restless mind / Shall find itself at home; and like the ark / Fix'd on the mountain-top, shall look-aloft / O'er the vague passage of precarious life; / And, winds and waves and rocks and tempests past, / Enjoy the everlasting calm of Heav'n."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1774

"In this journey, the understanding is the 'voiture' that must carry you through; and in proportion as that is stronger or weaker, more or less in repair, your journey will be better or worse; though at best you will now and then find some bad roads, and some bad inns."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1779, 1781

"The diction, being the vehicle of the thoughts, first presents itself to the intellectual eye; and if the first appearance offends, a further knowledge is not often sought."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)