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: 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: 1779, 1781
"The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reason, without eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit, that Addison seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1792
"For it is the right use of reason alone which makes us independent of everything--excepting the unclouded reason--'Whose service is perfect freedom.'"
preview | full record— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Date: 1796
"Thus he restored his plastic mind to its usual satisfaction, and arose the next morning without a cloud upon his brow."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)