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Date: 1678

"But Fancy, I think, in Poetry, is like Faith in Religion; it makes far discoveries, and soars above reason, but never clashes, or runs against it. Fancy leaps, and frisks, and away she's gone; whilst reason rattles the chains, and follows after."

— Rymer, Thomas (1641-1713)

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Date: 1684

"My grateful Thoughts so throng to get abroad, / They over-run each other in the crowd: / To you with hasty flight they take their way, / And hardly for the dress of words will stay."

— Oldham, John (1653-1683)

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Date: 1663-1689

"Our hearts weak forts we must resign / When beauty does its forces join / With man's strong enemy, good wine."

— Sackville, Charles, sixth earl of Dorset and first earl of Middlesex (1643-1706)

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Date: 1691

"Dancing, Singing, Swearing, Impudence, / Can make Impressions upon easie sense"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

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Date: 1692

"For these rude Pangs of Jealousie, are much more certain signs / Of Love, than all the tender Words an amorous Fancy coins."

— Walsh, William (bap. 1662, d. 1708)

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Date: 1696

"Pitty would not now at least /Have been a stranger to her Breast"

— Oldmixon, John (1672/3-1742)

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Date: 1697

"What is it then that lights the Candle again, when it is put out?"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

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Date: 1697

"You compare Cogitation in a Spirit, to Motion in a Body, and so Cessation from Thought in a a Spirit, must answer to Rest in a Body"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

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Date: 1697

"If we shou'd observe Pythagoras his Rule, to call our selves to an account every Evening, for the Actions and Thoughts of that Day, I believe we shou'd find many vacant spaces within the compass of a Day, which we cou'd not fill up with Thoughts."

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

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Date: 1697

"Many fleeting Thoughts pass through the Soul without Observation, and leave no Trace or Idea behind them"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

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