Date: 1704

"For, some think that the spirit is apt to feed on the flesh, like hungry wines upon raw beef."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1704

"Others rather believe there is a perpetual game at leap-frog between both, and sometimes the flesh is uppermost, and sometimes the spirit; adding that the former, while it is in the state of a rider, wears huge Rippon spurs, and when it comes to the turn of be...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1704

"Some again think that when our earthly tabernacles are disordered and desolate, shaken and out of repair, the spirit delights to dwell within them, as houses are said to be haunted, when they are forsaken and gone to decay."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: (March 2, 1692/3); 1708

"I have but one Child in the World, who is now nigh four Years old, and promises well; his Mother left him to me very young, and my Affections (I must confess) are strongly placed on him. It has pleased God, by the liberal Provisions of our Ancestors, to free me from the toiling Cares of providin...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: December 20, 1692; 1708

"I'm much concerned to hear you have your Health no better and, on this Occasion, cannot but deplore the great Losses the intellectual World, in all Ages, has suffer'd by, the strongest and soundest Minds possessing the most infirm and sickly Bodies. Certainly there must be some very powerful Cau...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: September 6, 1695; 1708

"To be reveng'd on you therefore for putting my Brains into such a Ferment, I have resolved to be so impertinent as to send you the Result of my Meditations upon the Subject."

— Synge, Edward (1659-1741)

Date: 1725

"I wou'd have all those soft-hearted Ladies that are impress'd like Wax, read Quevedo's 'Vision of Loving-Fools.'"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1725

"My Delia's Words still bear the Stamp of Wit, / Impress'd too plainly to be counterfeit: / Which, with the Weight of massy Reason join'd, / Declare the Strength and Quickness of her Mind; / Her Thoughts are noble, and her Sense refin'd."

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: September 10, 1726

"To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occ...

— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)

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)