Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"Sure I dream, or I am mad, and fansie it to be Love; Foolish Girl, recal thy banish'd Reason.--Ah! would it were no more, would I could rave, sure that would give me Ease, and rob me of the Sense of Pain; at least, among my wandring Thoughts, I should at sometime light upon Aurelian, and fansie ...

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: 1692

"This Letter (said Brook) shews that the force of Affectation draws a Veil before the Judgment, which else would govern Fancy according to Sense, and Reason."

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1692

"Methinks a generous Indignation should break so hated a Chain, since 'tis so preposterous and base, to make the Sov'raign of the mind, Reason, the Slave to every motion of the most inconsiderable part of our Body I know you a great stickler for Liberty, and Property, but you ought first to pull ...

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1692

"I tell you, Madam, Love in my Breast is with greater difficulty remov'd, than Foreign Aids out of the distressed Kingdom they are call'd in to assist; Love has subdued me all, and I am entirely a Slave."

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1692

"The Anatomy therefore of Man (concluded I) both as to Mind, and Body is a filthy Curiosity, as he observes, where one must besmeer ones self with Blood to trace the intricate Menaders of each Nerve, and Motion, and all the private Kingdom of Veins, and Arteries; by which the Mind as well as Body...

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1692

"Must a Man be forc'd to humble himself with a paltry Servility, even to Adoration, to be subject to Multiplicity of Cares, to weary his Mind in the Government of his Passions, and turmoil his Body with amorous Fatigues, and instead of a Reward for all this, shall he forc'd to purchase his Refres...

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1760-7

"When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion,--or, in other words, when his Hobby-Horse grows head-strong,--farewell cool reason and fair discretion!"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Thus conscience, this once able monitor,--placed on high as a judge within us, and intended by our Maker as a just and equitable one too,--by an unhappy train of causes and impediments, takes often such imperfect cognizance of what passes,--does its office so negligently,--sometimes so corruptly...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

Whenever one's "inward testimony goes against a man, and he stands self-accused,--that he must necessarily be a guilty man."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

The "little interests below" may "rise up and perplex the faculties of our upper regions, and encompass them about with clouds and thick darkness."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)