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Date: 1747

"Stupendous truths! here human wisdom fails, / Lost in a labyrinth of endless thought"

— Gilbert, Thomas (bap. 1713, d. 1766)

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Date: 1748

"But how will this dismantled soul appear, / When stripped of all it lately held so dear, / Forced from its prison of expiring clay, / Afraid and shivering at the doubtful way?"

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

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Date: 1748

The body is a "frail building falling to decay"

— Pilkington, Laetitia (c. 1709-1750)

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Date: 1748

Thought is "The hermit's solace in his cell"

— Philips, Ambrose (1674-1749)

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Date: 1733, 1748

Memory is a "Surprising storehouse! in whose narrow womb / All things, the past, the present, and to come, / Find ample space, and large and mighty room."

— Pilkington, Laetitia (c. 1709-1750)

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Date: w. 1740, 1748

"Thirsting for Knowledge, but to know the right, / Thro' judgment's optick guide th' illusive sight, / To let in rays on Reason's darkling cell, / And Prejudice's lagging mists dispel."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)

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Date: w. 1736, 1749

"Why should I drag along this life I hate, / Without one thought to mitigate the weight? / Whence this mysterious bearing to exist, / When every joy is lost, and every hope dismissed? / In chains and darkness wherefore should I stay, / And mourn in prison, while I keep the key?"

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

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Date: 1749

"Open a window in our breast, / That each our heart may see"

— Wesley, John and Charles

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Date: 1751

"But could our Eyes behold the deep Recess, / Where soft Pamela's Thoughts in private rest, / You'd find, in spite of Hymen's sacred Vows, / Ten Hours in Twelve that she abhors her Spouse"

— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)

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Date: 1753

Man stole the "Mimic Arts at first from Heav'n ... To fill the fairest Mansions of the Soul"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)

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