Date: 1717

"These Instances, which true in Fact we find, / Apply we to the Culture of the Mind."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"This Soil, in early Youth improv'd with Care, / The Seeds of gentle Science best will bear"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"This notion leads to universal necessity and fate, by supposing that motives have the same relation to the will of an intelligent agent, as weights have to a balance; so that of two things absolutely indifferent, and intelligent agent can no more choose either, than a balance can move itself whe...

— Leibniz, G. W. (1646-1716) and Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729)

Date: 1717

"But Man would yet look wondrous wise. / And equal Chains of Thought devise."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1717

"But, they who have considered with care the foundation and circumstances of their actions, doubt of their freedom, and are even persuaded, that their reason and understanding are slaves that cannot resist the force which carries them along."

— Collins, Anthony (1676-1729)

Date: Friday, May 13, 1717

"Nature which was at first, excepting the original Taint, fair, and sincere, or as Mr. Lock says, 'a blank Sheet of Paper' capable of receiving any Characters at the Pleasure of the Writer, soon is either blurred over with Impertinence, fouled with Impurity, or improved and dignified with Impress...

— Theobald, Lewis (1688-1744)

Date: 1717

"So very well Sweetheart; I am mightily troubled with Phlegm--od I took it a little too high for my Constitution, but every time I look upon you, I fancy my self but Eighteen, and my Heart springs in my Belly like a Bird in a Cage."

— Bullock, Christopher (bap. 1690, d. 1722)

Date: January 16, 1717

"Madam, excuse this Absence of Mind; my animal Spirits had deserted the Avenues of my Senses, and retired to the Recesses of the Brain, to contemplate a beautiful Idea. I could not force the vagrant Creatures back again into their Posts, to move those Parts of the Body that express Civility."

— Gay, John (1685-1732); Pope, Alexander (1688-1744); Arbuthnot, John (bap. 1677, d. 1735)

Date: 1717

"For it proceeds from the Light of Nature in my Breast, which tells me that my Life is not my own, but God's, who gave it, and that I am answerable for any Neglect of mine in not preserving the same."

— Earbery, Matthias (1690-1740)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Lo these were they, whose souls the Furies steel'd, / And curs'd with hearts unknowing how to yield."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)