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Date: From Thursday June 22. to Saturday June 24. 1710

"The elder, who is a Scholar, showed from his Infancy a Propensity to polite Studies, and has made a suitable Progress in Literature; but his Learning is so well woven into his Mind, that from the Impressions of it, he seems rather to have contracted an Habit of Life, than Manner of Discourse."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

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Date: Tuesday, January 15, 1712

"We observed a long Antrum or Cavity in the Sinciput, that was filled with Ribbons, Lace and Embroidery, wrought together in a most curious Piece of Network, the Parts of which were likewise imperceptible to the naked Eye. Another of these Antrums or Cavities was stuffed with invisible Billetdoux...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

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Date: Monday, April 28, 1712

"But how can any of these Advantages be attained by one who is a mere Stranger to the Customs and Policies of his native Country, and has not yet fixed in his Mind the first Principles of Manners and Behaviour? To endeavour it, is to build a gawdy Structure without any Foundation; or, if I may be...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

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Date: 1729

"But as the first Images are lost, so they are continually succeeded by new ones; and the Brain at first serves as a Slate to Cypher, or a Sampler to work upon."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1729

Because the outside of women is "more curiously wove" and like "fine cloth" in comparison to men's coarseness, "There is no Reason to imagine, that Nature should have been more neglectful of them out of Sight, than she has where we can trace her; and not have taken the same Care of them in the Fo...

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1731

"And therefore, as he observeth out of Aristotle, 'as it is absurd to say the Soul Weaves,' (or indeed the Body either, Weaving being a mixt Action of the Man and Weaving Instruments) so it is absurd to say that the Soul alone doth Covet, Grieve or Perceive: these things proceeding from the Compo...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

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Date: 1744

"Holiness elevates the worth of the being in which it is, and is of more value than the being itself. As in scarlet, the bare dye is of greater value than the cloath."

— South, Robert (1634-1716)

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Date: Tuesday, July 3, 1750

"There is yet another danger in this practice: men who cannot deceive others, are very often successful in deceiving themselves; they weave their sophistry till their own reason is entangled, and repeat their positions till they are credited by themselves."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

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Date: 1774

"A learned parson, rusting in his cell, at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, h...

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

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Date: 1790, 1794

"How many fine-spun threads of reasoning would my wandering thoughts have broken; and how difficult should I have found it to arrange arguments and inferences in the cells of my brain!"

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

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