Date: Tuesday, October 22, 1706
"Sometimes it is acted by the evil Spirit of general Vogue, and like a meer Possession 'tis hurry'd out of all manner of common Measures; to day it obeys the Course of things and submits to Causes and Consequences; to morrow it suffers Violence from the Storms and Vapours of Human Fancy, operated...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: Monday, March 3, 1712
"Death brings all Persons back to an Equality; and this Image of it, this Slumber of the Mind, leaves no Difference between the greatest Genius and the meanest Understanding: A Faculty of doing things remarkably praise-worthy thus concealed, is of no more use to the Owner, than a Heap of Gold to ...
preview | full record— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)
Date: 1715
"THEN as to Correction, the Heart being hardned, as before, by Opinion and Practice, and especially in a Belief that he ought not to be corrected, the Rod of Correction has a different Effect; for as the Blow of a Stripe makes an Impression on the Heart of a Child, as stamping a Seal does upon th...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1724-6
"Even the men of business, who are really so when in London; whether it be at the Exchange, the Alley, or the Treasury-Offices, and the Court; yet here they look as if they had left all their London thoughts behind them, and had separated themselves to mirth and good company; as if they came hith...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1726
"If this be the Case, it dictates the Necessity of early Education of Children, in whom, not the Soul only but the organick Powers are, as a Lump of soft Wax, which is always ready to receive any Impression; but if harden'd, grow callous, and stubborn, and like what we call Sealing-Wax, obstinate...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1727
"To see a Fool, a Fop, believe himself inspir'd, a Fellow that washes his Hands fifty times a-day, but if he would be truly cleanly, should have his Brains taken out and wash'd, his Scull Trapan'd, and plac'd with the hind-side before, that his Understanding, which Nature plac'd by Mistake, with ...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1727
"For I cannot agree that the Soul is in the Body, as in a Prison; but rather that, like a rich Nobleman, he is pleas'd to inhabit a fine Country Seat or Palace of his own Building, where he resolves to live and enjoy himself, and does so, 'till by the Fate of things his fine Palace being over-tur...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1727
"Conscience, indeed, is a frightful Apparition itself, and I make no Question but it oftentimes haunts an oppressing Criminal into Restitution, and is a Ghost to him sleeping or waking: nor is it the least Testimony of an invisible World that there is such a Drummer as that in the Soul, that can ...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1727
"But in the midst of these Tumults of his Soul, he had a strong Impression upon his Mind, that he could never die in Peace, nor ever go to Heaven, if he did not go over to England, and either get the Parliament's Pardon (for it was in those Days when there was no King in Israel) or that if he cou...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1727
"They imagin'd that the Soul was not only separated by Death from the Body, but that there was a Separation of the Understanding from its Case or Vehicle, as they call'd it; so that the Soul, which was but the Image and Form of the Body, might be in Hell; the Body it self burnt to Ashes remain'd ...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)