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Date: 1615

"Enter thou whosoever thou art (though thou be an Atheist, and acknowledgest no God at all,) enter I beseech thee, into the Sacred Tower of Pallas, I mean the brain of Man, and behold and admire the pillars and arched Cloysters of that princely palace, the huge greatness of that stately building,...

— Crooke, Helkiah (1576-1648)

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Date: 1678

"The Interpreter answered; This Parlor is the heart of a Man that was never sanctified by the sweet Grace of the Gospel: The dust, is his Original Sin, and inward Corruptions that have defiled the whole Man; He that began to sweep at first, is the Law; but She that brought water, and did sprinkle...

— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)

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Date: 1688

"I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

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Date: 1691

"The Brain, which is the principle of all Sense and Motion, the Fountain of the Animal Spirits, the Chief Seat and Palace Royal of the Soul; upon whose security depends whatever Privilege belongs to us as Sensitive or Rational Creatures."

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

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Date: 1691

"Thirdly, Let us hence duly learn to prize and value our Souls; is the Body such a rare Piece, what this is the Soul? the Body is but the Husk or Shell, the Soul is the Kernel; the Body is but the Cask, the Soul the precious Liquor contained in it; the Body is but the Cabinet; the Soul the Jewel;...

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

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Date: 1691

"'Tis uncertain whether the Fellow I'm about telling you a merry Story of, had been Dancing at a May-pole or no, but sure enough he was got finely Fox'd some where or other i'the Strand, and staid at it till the Watch was set--and then homeward he Rambled as his brutish Carcase cou'd direct him, ...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

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Date: 1691

"I was nothing but all Flame and Fire, and the red-hot Thoughts glared about my Brains at such a rate, and if visible, wou'd, I fancy, have made just such a dreadful Appearance as the Window of a Glass-house discovers in a dark Night--viz. a parcel of stragling fiery Globes marching about and hiz...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

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Date: 1701, 1704

"The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light a...

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

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Date: 1710

"Curse on that foppish Name, that empty Sound ['Honour'], / In whose dark Maze Mens Intellects are drown'd."

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

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Date: April 18, 1721

"He's gone, and now / I must unsluice my overburden'd Heart, / And let it flow."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

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