Date: 1733

"Indeed, the large Size, the wonderful Texture, and the great Care and security Nature has employ'd about the Brain, makes it probable it has been design'd for the noblest Uses, viz. to be the Temple or Sensorium of the sentient and intelligent Principle."

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1733

"May not the sentient Principle have its Seat in some Place in the Brain, where the Nerves terminate, like the Musician shut up in his Organ-Room? May not the infinite Windings, Convolutions, and Complications of the Beginning of the Nerves which constitute the Brain, serve to d...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1734

"Loosed from its bonds my spirit fled away, / And left behind its moving tent of clay."

— Adam [Adams], Jean (1710-1765)

Date: 1734

"But tho' we can tell many things the Fancy can do, 'tis impossible to tell every thing. It adds, it pares, it joins, it separates, it mixes, it jumbles, it builds, it razes; in short, it works wonders in its own Shop, and the best Description will still be inferior to its power."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"Beside the advantage of a good Memory, as it serves for making a figure in Conversation, it is still valuable upon better Reasons; since it may be made a Storehouse of the most profitable and agreeable things."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"But what shall we think of this odd Treasury, which retains things during a certain time, and then loses them, even before the Infirmities of Age come on? We say a thing has dropt out of our head: (where does it drop?) and it drops in again when we least expect it. What Corners do those Images l...

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"The question is, how this Familiarity arises? and how the Cabinet comes to be sensible of any thing that's put into it? A Scritore knows nothing of the Papers which the careful Banker locks up in it? Or a Glass, tho' it may be said to receive the Image of a Beau, and he really sees somewhat of h...

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"But what Texture of the Brain is sufficient to perform all the various Operations they assign to it, Sensation, Reflection, Wishing, Loving, Hating? Of what figure are the Cells for Poetry, and those for Mathematicks? And what Lodgings of the Brain are Honesty and Knavery to be found in?"

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: January 1739

"I shall therefore observe, that as the mind is endowed with a power of exciting any idea it pleases; whenever it despatches the spirits into that region of the brain, in which the idea is placed; these spirits always excite the idea, when they run precisely into the proper traces, and rummage th...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"The mind is a kind of theatre, where several perceptions successively make their appearance; pass, repass, glide away, and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)