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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: 1705

"For though she might be prevail'd with to sacrifice one to the Service of the other, yet she would never part with the last, without it was to gratifie that Noble Passion of Revenge, which is the darling Vice of her Sex, and was not a Stranger to Zarah's Breast."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

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Date: 1708

"Thus these three Receptacles were made in the same order which we have describ'd, and these were the first part of that great Mass which was form'd; now they stood in need of one another's assistance; the first wanted the other two as Servants, and they again the assistance and guidance of the f...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

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Date: 1709

"[W]e may Hope those favourable Sentiments will be no Strangers to Your Grace's Breast; which is a Repository for all Things Great and Human, for all Things Just and Noble"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

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Date: 1719

"I call'd a Council, that is to say, in my Thoughts, whether I should take back the Raft, but this appear'd impracticable."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1719

"It is as impossible as needless, to set down the innumerable Crowd of Thoughts that whirl'd through that great Thorowfair of the Brain, the Memory, in this Night's Time."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1719

One may have "several times loud Calls from [his] Reason and [his] more composed Judgment to go home"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1722

"[A]s to the Arguments which my Reason dictated for perswading me to lay down, Avarice stept in and said, go on, you have had very good luck, go on, till you have gotten Four or Five Hundred Pound, and then you shall leave off, and then you may live easie without working at all."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1722, 1723

"For Jesus sake, remove not my Distress, / Till free Triumphant Grace shall Reposess / The Vacant Throne; from whence my Sins Depart, / And make a willing Captive of my Heart."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1724

"All these Thoughts, and many more, crowded in so fast, I say, upon me, that I wanted to give Vent to them, and get rid of him, and was very glad when he was gone away"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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