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Date: 1705

"The Soul of Man, before it has received any Impression on it, is compar'd to a Rasa Tabula, by Philosophers, that is, It is as it were, a plain capable of any Impression whatever"

— Coward, William (b. 1656/7, d. in or before 1725)

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Date: 1705

"T' enjoy the World's Conveniencies, / Be fam'd in War, yet live in Ease, / Without great Vices, is a vain / Eutopia seated in the Brain."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1711

"From this we may further conclude, that as the Soul acts not immediately upon Bone, Flesh, Blood &c. nor they upon that, so there must be some exquisitely small Particles, that are the Internuncii between them, by the help of which they manifest themselves to each other."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1711

"Then you would have this variously disposing of the Images to be the work of the Spirits, that act under the Soul, as so many Labourers under some great Architect."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1711

"We must consider the Soul as the Skill of an Artificer, whilst the Organs of the Body are her Tools; for as the Body and its most minute Spirits are wholly insignificant, and cannot perform that Operation which we call thinking without the Soul more than the Tools of an Artificer, can do anythin...

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1711

"The Internuncii you speak of, are the Animal Spirits, and that they are the intermediate Officers between the Soul and the grosser parts of the Body no Man denies."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1711

"And reflecting on what is transacted within us, it seems to me a very diverting Scene to think when we strive to recollect something that does not then occur; how nimbly those volatil Messengers of ours will beat through all the Paths, and hunt every Enclosure of the Organ set aside for thinking...

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1705, 1714, 1732

"Laws and Government are to the Political Bodies of Civil Societies, what the Vital Spirits and Life it self are to the Natural Bodies of Animated Creatures"

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1705, 1714, 1732

"I believe Man (besides Skin, Flesh, Bones, &c. that are obvious to the Eye) to be a compound of various Passions, that all of then, as they are provoked and come uppermost, govern him by turns, whether he will or no."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1705, 1714, 1732

"The Chief Thing, therefore, which Lawgivers and other wise Men, that have laboured for the Establishment of Society, have endeavour'd, has been to make the People they were to govern, believe, that it was more beneficial for every Body to conquer than indulge his Appetites and much better to min...

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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