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Date: 1686

"I am starv'd into a Substance so thin, that my Body is transparent; you may see my heart, and the appurtenances, hang up here in its mortal Closet, as easily as a Candle in a Lanthorn."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

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Date: 1691

"Men have no Windows in their Breast"

— Wilson, John (bap. 1626, d. 1695?)

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Date: 1696

"The Sences in Confederacy raise Rebellion against reason; there now is a Civil War over all this Compound Tabernacle. Pride and Desire disturb the Harmony of Government, endeavouring to undermine the tottering Fabrick, and to hurl all into Chaos and Confusion."

— Anonymous; George Powell (1658-1714), Publisher

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Date: 1696

"I find the danger now: my Spirits start / At the alarm, and from all quarters come / To Man my Heart, the Citadel of love."

— Southerne, Thomas (1659-1746)

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Date: 1700

"To think of a Whirlwind, tho' 'twere in a Whirlwind, were a Case of more steady Contemplation; a very tranquility of Mind and Mansion."

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

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Date: 1700

"A Fellow that lives in a Windmill, has not a more whimsical Dwelling than the Heart of a Man that is lodg'd in a Woman."

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

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Date: December 13, 1700; 1701

"I ne'er saw any yet so fair! such Sweetness in her Look! such Modesty! if we may think the Eye the window to the Heart, she has a thousand treasur'd Virtues there."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

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Date: 1701

"Contemplation is but an Overture to Madness, a discontented Temper renders the World Odious; and Melancholy, like Sleep, steals insensibly upon our Spirits; and when Solitude has contracted our Thoughts into a too serious Meditation, we fall into a Labyrinth of foolish Notions, that quite craze ...

— Baker, Thomas (b. 1680-1)

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Date: 1702

"But that my Soul, conscious of whence it sprung, / Sits unpolluted in its sacred Temple, / And scorns to mingle with a Thought so mean."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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Date: 1700, 1702

"Her thoughtful Soul, labours with some event / Of high import, which bustles like an Embryo / In its dark Room, and longs to be disclos'd."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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