Date: 1691

" And that it was the practice of Youth (who like the Sun oft rises clear and dancing, though he sets in a Cloud) to look upon distant Prospects with a magnifying Fancy, laying these weighty Matters together, I resolved now to ride at Anchor one seven years within the sound of Bow-Bell."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"I burn and am consumed with hopeless Love; those Beams in whose soft temperate warmth I wanton'd heretofore, now flash destruction to my Soul, my Treacherous greedy Eyes have suck'd the glaring Light, they have united all its Rays, and, like a burning-Glass, Convey'd the pointed Meteor to-my Hea...

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: 1696

"For if we look through Reason's never erring Perspective, we then Survey their Souls, and view the Rubbish we were Chaffring for: And such I find, Hillaria's mind is made of."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1710, 1714

"We might here, therefore, as in a Looking-Glass, discover our-selves, and see our minutest Features nicely delineated, and suted to our own Apprehension and Cognizance. No one who was ever so little a while an Inspector, but must come acquainted with his own Heart."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"And, what was of singular note in these magical Glasses; it wou'd happen, that by constant and long Inspection, the Partys accustom'd to the Practice, wou'd acquire a peculiar speculative Habit; so as virtually to carry about with 'em a sort of Pocket-Mirrour, always ready, and in use."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"Whatever we were employ'd in, whatever we set about; if once we had acquir'd the habit of this Mirrour; we shou'd, by virtue of the double Reflection, distinguish our-selves into two different Partys."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: Saturday, March 17, 1711

"When Women are thus perpetually dazling one anothers Imaginations, and filling their Heads with nothing but Colours, it is no Wonder that they are more attentive to the superficial Parts of Life, than the solid and substantial Blessings of it."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"By these Allusions [similitudes, metaphors, and allegories] a Truth in the Understanding is as it were reflected by the Imagination; we are able to see something like Colour and Shape in a Notion, and to discover a Scheme of Thoughts traced out upon Matter"

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Tuesday, January 15, 1712

"The Pineal Gland, which many of our Modern Philosophers suppose to be the Seat of the Soul, smelt very strong of Essence and Orange-flower Water, and was encompassed with a kind of Horny Substance, cut into a thousand little Faces or Mirrours, which were imperceptible to the naked Eye, insomuch ...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: w. 1740, 1748

"Thirsting for Knowledge, but to know the right, / Thro' judgment's optick guide th' illusive sight, / To let in rays on Reason's darkling cell, / And Prejudice's lagging mists dispel."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)