Date: 1752

A puppet may be "compell'd by secret Springs" just as an engine "moves with Motions not its own"

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [pseud.]

Date: 1755

"Lord have mercy upon us! said the squire, did not I tell your worship to consider well what you were about? did not I assure you, they were no other than wind-mills? indeed no body could mistake them for any thing else, but one who has wind-mills in his own head!"

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1757-9

"He gapes to catch the Droppings of my Lord; / And tickled to the Soul at every Joke, / Like a press'd Watch repeats what t'other spoke: / Echo to Nonsense! such a Scene to hear!"

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [Editor]

Date: 1761, 1790

"Whence can this very motion take its birth? / Not sure from matter, from dull clods of earth; / But from a living spirit lodg'd within, / Which governs all the bodily machine"

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787); Browne, Isaac Hawkins (1706-1760)

Date: 1772

"No inference can give a juster idea of Des Cartes's doctrine of automata, than Mr. Regis's comparison of some hydraulic machines, to be seen in certain grottos and fountains, that serve as ornaments to the splendid mansions of the great; where water exerts itself by the disposition of the pipes,...

— Anonymous