Date: 1708

"And this misgrounded Conceit of his, had like to have firmly rooted itself in his Mind, unless God had pursu'd him with his Mercy, and directed him by his gracious Guidance; and then he perceiv'd that it arose from the Relicks of that Obscurity which is natural to Body, and the Dregs of sensible...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

Date: 1762

"An idle mind, like fallow ground, is the soil for every weed to grow in; in it vice strengthens, the seed of every vanity flourishes unmolested and luxuriant; discontent, malignity, ill humour, spread far and wide, and the mind becomes a chaos, which it is beyond human power to call into order a...

— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)