Date: 1730, 1744, 1746

"With swift wing / O'er land and sea imagination roams; / Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind, / Elates his being, and unfolds his powers; / Or in his breast heroic virtue burns."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1733

"I own it is much easier to confute than establish, and I should not be very Sanguin about the Non-existence of animal Spirits, but that I have observ'd the dwelling so much upon them, has led Physicians too much to neglect the mending Juices, the opening Obstructions, and the strengthening the S...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1751, 1777

"It is sufficient for our present purpose, if it be allowed, what surely, without the greatest absurdity, cannot be disputed, that there is some benevolence, however small, infused into our bosom; some spark of friendship for human kind; some particle of the dove, kneaded into our frame, along wi...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

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)