Date: 1692

"He has clearly overthrown all those Metaphysical Whymsies, which infected mens Brains with a Spice of Madness, whereby they feign'd a Knowledge where they had none, by making a noise with Sounds, without clear and distinct Significations."

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: 1692

"Suspence that torture of the Mind, / Long had our Thoughts in doubts dark Cave confin'd"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

Date: 1696

"O! that we cou'd incorporate, be one, / One Body, as we have been long one Mind: / That blended so, we might together mix, / And losing thus our Beings to the World, / Be only found to one anothers Joys."

— Southerne, Thomas (1659-1746)

Date: 1697

"St. Austin names Memory the Soul's Belly or Storehouse, or the Receptacle of the Mind, because it is appointed to receive and lay up as in a Treasury, those things that may be for our Benefit and Advantage."

— D'Assigny, Marius (1643-1717)

Date: 1700

"Her Night-gown hanging loose, discover’d her charming Bosom, which cou’d bear no Name, but Transport, Wonder and Extasy, all which struck his Soul, as soon as the Object hit his Eye; her Breasts with an easy Heaving, show’d the Smoothness of her Soul and of her Skin; their Motions were so langui...

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1700

"What does the World think of this holding up the Buckler, they put but a bad Construction upon it, and say that his Conscience is Ulcerated, that you cannot touch any String, but it will answer to some painful place."

— Brown, Thomas (bap. 1663, d. 1704)

Date: w. 1684, 1702

"These rugged Walls, less grievous are to me, / Than those bedeck'd with curious Arras be / T'a guilty Conscience; to a wounded Heart, / A Palace cannot palliate that smart: / Tho' drunk with Pleasure, dull with Opiates, / Some seem as Senseless of their sad Estates, / Till on their Dying-Beds Co...

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: 1703

"Distorted Nature shakes at the Controul, / With strong Convulsions rends my strugling Soul; / Each vital String cracks with th' unequal Strife, / Departing Love racks like departing Life; / Yet there the Sorrow ceases with the Breath, / But Love each day renews th' torturing scene of Death."

— Egerton [née Fyge; other married name Field], Sarah (1670-1723)

Date: 1704

"Who then wou'd court the Pomp of guilty Power, / When the Mind sickens at the weary Shew, / And flies to temporary Death for Ease."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: May 10, 1704

"And indeed it seems not unreasonable that books, the children of the brain, should have the honour to be christened with variety of names, as well as other infants of quality."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)