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Date: Saturday, November 17, 1750

"[F]or most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of custom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

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Date: June, 1756

"But soul-rejoicing health again returns, / The blood meanders gentle in each vein, / The lamp of life renew'd with vigour burns, / And exil'd reason takes her seat again-- / Brisk leaps the heart, the mind's at large once more, / To love, to praise, to bless, to wonder and adore."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

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Date: 1760-7

"When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion,--or, in other words, when his Hobby-Horse grows head-strong,--farewell cool reason and fair discretion!"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

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Date: 1760-7

"Could no such thing as favour and affection enter this sacred Court [of Conscience]:--Did Wit disdain to take a bribe in it;--or was asham'd to shew its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

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Date: 1760-7

"Or, lastly, were we assured, that Interest stood always unconcern'd whilst the cause was hearing,--and that passion never got into the judgment-seat, and pronounc'd sentence in the stead of reason, which is supposed always to preside and determine upon the case."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

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Date: 1760-7

"It is curious to observe the triumph of slight incidents over the mind:--What incredible weight they have in forming and governing our opinions, both of men and things,--that trifles light as air, shall waft a belief into the soul, and plant it so immoveably within it,--that Euclid's de...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

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Date: 1762, 1781

"Delusion o'er my Mind usurps Command, / And rules each Sense with Fancy's magic Wand."

— Keate, George (1729-1797)

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Date: 1762-3

"By tyrants awed, who never find / The passage to their people's mind; / To whom the joy was never known / Of planting in the heart their throne."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

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Date: 1762-3

"The senses all must homage pay; / Hither they all must tribute bring, / And prostrate fall before their king."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

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Date: 1762-3

"With these grave fops, whose system seems / To give up certainty for dreams / The eye of man is understood / As for no other purpose good / Than as a door, through which, of course, / Their passage crowding objects force; / A downright usher, to admit / New-comers to the court of Wit."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

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