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Date: 1735

"He seemed therefore confident, that instead of Reason, we were only possessed of some Quality fitted to increase our natural Vices; as the Reflection from a troubled Stream returns the Image of an ill-shapen Body, not only larger, but more distorted."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1735

"Imagination, Fancy, and Invention, they are wholly Strangers to, nor have any Words in their Language by which those Ideas can be expressed; the whole Compass of their Thoughts and Mind, being shut up within the two forementioned Sciences"

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1735, 1736

"In Men, we various Ruling Passions find, / In Women, two almost divide the kind; / Those, only fix'd, they first or last obey, / The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1737

"From threshing Corn, he turns to thresh his Brains; / For which Her M------y allows him Grains."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1737

"So many things freely thrown out, such lengths of unreserv'd friendship, thoughts just warm from the brain, without any polishing or dress, the very dishabille of the understanding."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1737

""Alas, my soul! thou pleasing companion of this body, thou fleeting thing that art now deserting it! whither art thou flying? to what unknown scene? all trembling, fearful, and pensive! what now is become of thy former wit and humour? thou shalt jest and be gay no more."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1737

"I have been lying in wait for my own imagination this week and more, and watching what thoughts came up in the whirl of the fancy, that were worth communicating to you in a letter."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1737

"That man makes a mean figure in the eye of reason, who is measuring syllables and coupling rhimes, when he should be mending his own soul and securing his own immortality."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1737

"My faults will not be hid from you, and perhaps it is no dispraise to me that they will not: the cleanness and purity of one's mind is never better proved, than in discovering its own faults at first view; as when a stream shows the dirt at its bottom, it shows also the transparency of the water."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1737

"I thank you heartily for the new idea of life you there gave me; it will remain long with me, for it is very strongly impressed upon my imagination."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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