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Date: May 10, 1704

"But when a man's fancy gets astride his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors; the first proselyte he makes is himself, and when that is once compassed the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others,...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: May 10, 1704

"Whether Things that have Place in the Imagination, may not as properly be said to exist, as those that are seated in the Memory: which may be justly held in the affirmative, and very much to the advantage fo the former, since it is acknowledged to be the Womb of Things, and the other allowed to ...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: May 10, 1704

"Now it usually happens that these active spirits, getting possession of the brain, resemble those that haunt other waste and empty dwellings, which for want of business either vanish and carry away a piece of the house, or else stay at home and fling it all out of the windows."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1708

"'I cannot think but that the same thing which I am in search of, once dwelt here, but has now deserted his Habitation and left it empty, and that the Absence of that thing, has occasion'd this Privation of Sense and Cessation of Motion, which happen'd to the Body.' Now when he perceiv'd that the...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

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Date: 1708

"And now he Apprehended plainly that every particular Animal, tho' it had a great many Limbs, and variety of Senses and Motions, was nevertheless One in respect of that Spirit, whose Original was from one firm Mansion, viz. the Heart, from whence, its Influence was diffus'd among all the Members."

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

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Date: 1719

"During the long Time that Friday has now been with me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a Foundation of religious Knowledge in his Mind."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1724

"Her Heart was like a great Inn, which finds room for all that come."

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

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Date: 1726

"Here I discovered the Roguery and Ignorance of those who pretend to write Anecdotes, or secret History who send so many Kings to their Graves with a Cup of Poison; will repeat the Discourse between a Prince and Chief Minister, where no Witness was by; unlock the Thoughts and Cabinets of E...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"She pours out all her Soul in [Soliloquies and little Reasonings] before her Parents without Disguise; so that one may judge of, nay, almost see, the inmost Recesses of her Mind"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

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Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"For, as I have heard you, my best Tutor, often observe, the Peculiarities of Habit, where a Person aims at something fantastick, or out of Character, are an undoubted Sign of a wrong Head: For such an one is so kind, as always to hang out on his Sign, what sort of Furniture he has in his Shop, t...

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

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