Date: 1691

" And that it was the practice of Youth (who like the Sun oft rises clear and dancing, though he sets in a Cloud) to look upon distant Prospects with a magnifying Fancy, laying these weighty Matters together, I resolved now to ride at Anchor one seven years within the sound of Bow-Bell."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"I burn and am consumed with hopeless Love; those Beams in whose soft temperate warmth I wanton'd heretofore, now flash destruction to my Soul, my Treacherous greedy Eyes have suck'd the glaring Light, they have united all its Rays, and, like a burning-Glass, Convey'd the pointed Meteor to-my Hea...

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: 1696

"For if we look through Reason's never erring Perspective, we then Survey their Souls, and view the Rubbish we were Chaffring for: And such I find, Hillaria's mind is made of."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1710, 1714

"We might here, therefore, as in a Looking-Glass, discover our-selves, and see our minutest Features nicely delineated, and suted to our own Apprehension and Cognizance. No one who was ever so little a while an Inspector, but must come acquainted with his own Heart."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"And, what was of singular note in these magical Glasses; it wou'd happen, that by constant and long Inspection, the Partys accustom'd to the Practice, wou'd acquire a peculiar speculative Habit; so as virtually to carry about with 'em a sort of Pocket-Mirrour, always ready, and in use."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"Whatever we were employ'd in, whatever we set about; if once we had acquir'd the habit of this Mirrour; we shou'd, by virtue of the double Reflection, distinguish our-selves into two different Partys."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: From Saturd. March 11. to Tuesd. March 14. 1710

"It was then very pleasant to look into the Hearts of the whole Company; for the Balls of Sight are so form'd, that one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to another to read his Heart with."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Saturday, March 17, 1711

"When Women are thus perpetually dazling one anothers Imaginations, and filling their Heads with nothing but Colours, it is no Wonder that they are more attentive to the superficial Parts of Life, than the solid and substantial Blessings of it."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Friday, October 26, 1711

"A Man, they say, wears the Picture of his Mind in his Countenance; and one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to his who looks at him to read his Heart."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"By these Allusions [similitudes, metaphors, and allegories] a Truth in the Understanding is as it were reflected by the Imagination; we are able to see something like Colour and Shape in a Notion, and to discover a Scheme of Thoughts traced out upon Matter"

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)