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Date: w. before 1717? (first published 1989)

"But he who servily can wish or grieve / For that which is not in his powr to give / Casts off the firmness wch shoud make him great / the strongest shield we can oppose to fate / letts inclinations grow & thus he weaves / Those very bonds which keep us passions slaves."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

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Date: 1724

"If I have here touch'd a young Lady's Vanity and Levity, it was to show her how beautiful she is without those Blots, which certainly stain the Mind, and stamp Deformity where the greatest Beauties would shine, were they banish'd."

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

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Date: 1725

A child may be governed Reason and her Father, unless she (like the rest of the "ungovernable Sex") think her own will her best adviser

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

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Date: 1726

"'Twould be a bad World with most of us, if Reason were always to rule."

— Southerne, Thomas (1659-1746)

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Date: September 10, 1726

"Now, according to my supposition, there being no active intelligent Being, who, by his Presence and Superintendency, governs and directs the Course of those vagabond Images, every thing in the Brain resembles the fortuitous concourse of Atoms."

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

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Date: 1726

"Reason alone is sufficient to govern a Rational Creature; which was therefore a Character we had no Pretence to challenge"

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1727

Men's Reason "tyes them down to Rules," while women, "like Sampson break the trifling Twine and laugh at every Obstacle that would oppose [their] pleasure"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

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Date: 1727

Women have the same "Passions and Inclinations [as Men], which when let loose without a Curb, grow wild and untameable, defy all Laws and Rules, and can be subdued by nothing but what they are seldom Mistresses of"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

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Date: 1728

"[D]id we consider that the time will come, when we shall be as conscious of his Presence, as we are of our own Existence; as sensible of his Approbation or [195] Condemnation, as we are of the Testimony of our own Hearts; ... how should we despise that Honour which is...

— Hutcheson, Francis (1694-1746)

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Date: 1730

"Cowardice was only the predominant Passion that seiz'd me then, but now I am as valiant as any Man, and by thy supernatural Charms I adore you."

— Coffey, Charles (d. 1745)

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