Date: 1722

"O! what a felicity is it to Mankind, said I, to myself, that they cannot see into the Hearts of one another!"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1735

"He seemed therefore confident, that instead of Reason, we were only possessed of some Quality fitted to increase our natural Vices; as the Reflection from a troubled Stream returns the Image of an ill-shapen Body, not only larger, but more distorted."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1769

"The first reverend sage who delivered himself on this mysterious subject, having stroked his grey beard, and hemmed thrice with great solemnity, declared that the soul was an animal; a second pronounced it to be the number three, or proportion; a third contended for the number seven, or harmony;...

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1771

What "absurd judgment we form, in viewing objects through the falsifying medium of prejudice and passion"

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)