Date: 1701
"Man is a Creature of so mixed a Composure, and of a Frame so inconsistent and different from Itself, that it easily speaks his Affinity to the highest and meanest Beings; that is to say, he is made of Body and Soul, he is at once an Engine and an Engineer."
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: 1709, 1714
"'Tis hard, that in the Plan or Description of this Clock-work, no Wheel or Ballance shou'd be allow'd on the side of the better and more enlarg'd Affections; that nothing shou'd be understood to be done in Kindness or Generosity; nothing in pure good-Nature or Friendship , or thro any social or ...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1709, 1714
"They wou'd new frame the Human Heart; and have a mighty Fancy to reduce all its Motions, Ballances and Weights, to that one Principle and Foundation of a cool and deliberate Selfishness."
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1710, 1714
"Shou'd a Philosopher, after the same manner [as a visitor to a Watchmaker's Shop], employing himself in the Study of human Nature, discover only, what Effects each Passion wrought upon the Body; what change of Aspect or Feature they produc'd; and in what different manner they affected the Limbs ...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: From Thursday July 13. to Saturday July 15. 1710
"Her Air discovered her Body a meer Machine of her Mind, and not that her Thoughts were employed in studying Graces and Attractions for her Person."
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: Thursday, July 12, 1711
"I consider the Body as a System of Tubes and Glands, or to use a more Rustick Phrase, a Bundle of Pipes and Strainers, fitted to one another after so wonderful a Manner as to make a proper Engine for the Soul to work with."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: 1714
If we imagine a "machine whose structure makes it think, sense, and have perceptions" enlarged to the size of a mill, upon "inspecting its interior, we will only find parts that push one another, and we will never find anything to explain a perception"
preview | full record— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Date: 1724
"The sudden Gusts of these Passions being thus accounted for, when they become extreme they drive about the Blood with such a Hurricane, that Nature is overset, like a Mill by a Flood: So that what drove it only quicker round before, now intirely stops it, and renders the Countenance pale and gha...
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: September 10, 1726
"First then I lay down, as an undeniable Truth, that we have in common with other Animals a certain Machine of a curious and exquisite Workmanship, the principal Springs whereof are Imagination and Memory."
preview | full record— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)
Date: September 10, 1726
"To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occ...
preview | full record— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)