Date: 1780

"But the skilful marksman, like our philosopher, examines first the mark he is to shoot at, with all possible diligence and care, to see whether it be soft or hard, for some are impenetrable; then dipping his arrow, not in poison, like the Scythians, nor in opium, like the Curetes, but in a kind ...

— Francklin, Thomas (1721–1784); Lucian (b.c. 125, d. after 180)

Date: 1780

"The best way therefore is, whilst the mind of the historian is on horseback, for his style to walk on foot, and take hold of the rein, that it may not be left behind."

— Francklin, Thomas (1721–1784); Lucian (b.c. 125, d. after 180)

Date: 1780

"The mind of the historian should resemble a looking-glass, shining, clear, and exactly true, representing every thing as it really is, and nothing distorted, or of a different form, or colour."

— Francklin, Thomas (1721–1784); Lucian (b.c. 125, d. after 180)

Date: 1780-85; in French, 36 vols. 1749-1788

"Is it difficult to perceive that our ideas originate from our senses alone; that the objects we regard as real existences, are those concerning which the senses uniformly give the same testimony."

— Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788)

Date: 1788-89

"According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank."

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1788-89

"According to Plato, she [the soul] is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy."

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1788-89

"On the former system, she [the soul] is on a level with the most degraded natures, the receptacle of material species, and the spectator of delusion and non-entity."

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1788-89

The soul is "Like a man between sleeping and waking, her visions are turbid and confused, and the phantoms of a material night, continually glide before her drowsy eye."

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1788-89

"But on the latter system [Plato's], the soul is the connecting medium of an intelligible and sensible nature, the bright repository of all middle forms, and the vigilant eye of all cogitative reasons"

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1788-89

"At first, indeed, before she is excited by science, she is oppressed with lethargy, and clouded with oblivion; but in proportion as learning and enquiry stimulate her dormant powers, she wakens from the dreams of ignorance, and opens her eye to the irradiations of wisdom"

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)