Date: 1713, 1734

"I have been a long time distrusting my Senses; methought I saw things by a dim Light, and thro false Glasses. Now, the Glasses are removed, and a new Light breaks in upon my Understanding."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1714

"But when a monad has organs that are adjusted in such a way that, through them, there is contrast and distinction among the impressions they receive, and consequently contrast and distinction in the perceptions that represent them [in the monads] (as, for example, when the rays of light are conc...

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Date: 1714

"Reason is now no more; that narrow Lamp / (Which with its sickly Fires wou'd shoot its Beams / To Distances unknown, and stretch its Rays / Ascance my Paths, in deepest darkness veil'd) / Is sunk into its Socket"

— Evans, Abel (1679-1737)

Date: 1715

"Thy Virtues flash, / They break at once on my astonish'd Soul; / As if the Curtains of the Dark were drawn, / To let in Day at Midnight."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1715

"Light of my Soul, my Hearts refined part, why dost thou weep, why like distilling Roses waste, dissolving thus thy Beauties to a Dew?"

— Bullock, Christopher (bap. 1690, d. 1722)

Date: 1717

"To lead us safe thro' Error's thorny Maze, / Reason exerts her pure Etherial Rays"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"For it proceeds from the Light of Nature in my Breast, which tells me that my Life is not my own, but God's, who gave it, and that I am answerable for any Neglect of mine in not preserving the same."

— Earbery, Matthias (1690-1740)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Dim lights of life that burn a length of years, / Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1718

"When first to Think your active Mind essay'd, / And young Ideas in your Fancy play'd, / While dawning Reason's unexperienc'd Ray / Drew a faint Scetch of Intellectual Day, / Your Parents, who the Laws of Heav'n revere, / And make Immortal Bliss their pious Care, / Assiduous strove by mild Instru...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"But the sweet Bowl's intoxicating Fume / Will by degrees our vanquish'd Sense benumb, / And o'er the Mind diffuse Egyptian Gloom."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)