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Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit, like a hasty Flood, may over-run us, / And too much Sense has oftentimes undone us."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit is a Flux, a Looseness of the Brain, / And Sense-abstract has too much Pride to reign."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1700, 1705

"For Sense, like Water, is but Wit condense, / And Wit, like Air, is rarify'd from Sense."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1709 [1708]

"Beautiful Looks are rul'd by fickle Minds; / And Summer Seas are turn'd by sudden Winds"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

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Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"Tutors, like Virtuoso's, oft inclin'd / By strange transfusion to improve the mind, / Draw off the sense we have, to pour in new; / Which yet with all their skill, they ne'er could do."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"But if in noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purg'd off, of spleen and sour disdain; / Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes, / Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1715-1720

"And the Simile wonderfully illustrates this Fury proceeding from an uncommon Infusion of Courage from Heaven, in resembling it not to a constant River, but a Torrent rising from an extraordinary Burst of Rain. This Simile is one of those that draws along with it some foreign Circumstances."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1715-1720

"As when old Ocean's silent Surface sleeps, / The Waves just heaving on the purple Deeps; / While yet th'expected Tempest hangs on high, / Weighs down the Cloud, and blackens in the Sky, / The Mass of Waters will no Wind obey; / Jove sends one Gust, and bids them roll away. / While wav'ri...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1715-1720

"There is scarce any thing in the whole Compass of Nature [referring to the calmed sea] that can more exactly represent the State of an irresolute Mind, wavering between two different Designs, sometimes inclining to the one, sometimes to the other, and then moving to the Point to which its Resolu...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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