Date: Tuesday, October 22, 1706
"Sometimes it is acted by the evil Spirit of general Vogue, and like a meer Possession 'tis hurry'd out of all manner of common Measures; to day it obeys the Course of things and submits to Causes and Consequences; to morrow it suffers Violence from the Storms and Vapours of Human Fancy, operated...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1706 [first published 1658]
"Serenity or Sereneness, clearness of the Sky, fair Weather, calmness of Mind, chearfulness of Looks."
preview | full record— Phillips, Edward (1630-1696)
Date: January 25, 1698/9; 1708
"But the Truth is, my Thoughts never look towards Dublin now, without casting such a Cloud upon my Mind, and laying such a Load of fresh Sorrow on me for the Loss of my dear Friend, your Brother, that I cannot without Displeasure turn them that Way; and when I do it I find my self very unfit for ...
preview | full record— Locke, John (1632-1704)
Date: Tuesday, June 28, to Thursday, June 30, 1709
"Speak the speech as I pronounce it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lieve the town-crier had spoke my lines: nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the...
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: Saturday, May 12, 1711
"The Thoughts will be rising of themselves from time to time, tho' we give them no Encouragement; as the Tossings and Fluctuations of the Sea continue several Hours after the Winds are laid."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Monday, December 3, 1711
"A good Name is fitly compared to a precious Ointment2, and when we are praised with Skill and Decency, 'tis indeed the most agreeable Perfume, but if too strongly admitted into a Brain of a less vigorous and happy Texture, 'twill, like too strong an Odour, overcome the Senses, and prove pernicio...
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1712
"Upon examining this Liquor [in the pericaridum of the coquet], we found that it had in it all the Qualities of that Spirit which is made use of in the Thermometer, to shew the Change of Weather."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Saturday, May 17, 1712
"Mirth is like a Flash of Lightning, that breaks thro a Gloom of Clouds, and glitters for a Moment; Chearfulness keeps up a kind of Day-light in the Mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual Serenity."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: 1713
"At others [other times], to be present when a battel or a storm raged, or a glittering palace rose in his imagination"
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1722
"[O]r that hence, as swiftly those imperceptible Messengers called animal Spirits, should, at the Nutus Animae, rush through their Meandrous Paths like Lightning, and having dispatched the Mandates of the Will, as speedily bring back their Errand to the common Sensory."
preview | full record— Turner, Daniel (1667-1741)