Date: 1712

"She [the mind] draws ten thousand Landschapes in the Brain, / Dresses of airy Forms an endless Train, / Which all her Intellectual Scenes prepare, / Enter by turns the Stage, and disappear."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1716

"We are gratify'd to see an unexpected Idea presented to our Understanding, and wonder at the beautiful Conjunction of Notions so separate and remote before; and whatever is marvellous is delightful too; as we always feel a Pleasure at the sight of Foreigners and their Garments, so the Mind rejoi...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1717

"The nymph her graces here express'd may find, / And by this picture learn to dress her mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1718

"Tropes at first, in the rude Times of the World, us'd for Necessity, were soon found to be Ornamental, and to give Strength and Gracefulness to the Turn of Men's Thoughts: As Garments first put on for the necessary Defence of the Body against the Severities of the Weather, were quickly f...

— Blackwall, Anthony (bap. 1672, d. 1730)

Date: April 18, 1721

"If, after Death, our Forms (as some believe) / Shall be transparent, naked every Thought, / And Friends meet Friends, and read each other's Hearts, / Thou'lt know one day, that thou wast held most dear. / Farewel."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: Friday, April 17. 1724

"Their Imaginations are thin, and delicate; and play lightly on the Skirts of Objects: But they are too weak for solid Reasoning; and, in any Thing abstracted, and above the Pitch of the Senses, they are miserably Impotent, and grow presently weary."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1737

"So many things freely thrown out, such lengths of unreserv'd friendship, thoughts just warm from the brain, without any polishing or dress, the very dishabille of the understanding."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: w. 1737, published 1738

"But when no Prelate's Lawn with Hair-shirt lin'd, / Is half so incoherent as my Mind, / When (each Opinion with the next at strife, / One ebb and flow of follies all my Life) / I plant, root up, I build, and then confound, / Turn round to square, and square again to round."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"For, as I have heard you, my best Tutor, often observe, the Peculiarities of Habit, where a Person aims at something fantastick, or out of Character, are an undoubted Sign of a wrong Head: For such an one is so kind, as always to hang out on his Sign, what sort of Furniture he has in his Shop, t...

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1742

"Of this number I could name a Peer no less elevated by Nature than by Fortune, who whilst he wears the noblest Ensigns of Honour on his Person, bears the truest Stamp of Dignity on his Mind, adorned with Greatness, enriched with Knowledge, and embelished with Genius."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)