Document 1

"Since it is the understanding that sets man above the rest of sensible beings, and gives him all the advantage and dominion which he has over then; it is certainly a subject, even for its nobleness, worth our labour to inquire into. The understanding, like the eye, while it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object. But whatever be the difficulties that lie in the way of this inquiry; whatever it be that keeps us so much in the dark to ourselves; sure I am that all the light we can let in upon our minds, all the acquiantance we can make with our understandings, will not only be very pleasant, but bring us great advantage, in directing our thoughts in the search of other things."

- Locke, John: Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Document 2

A deep and sweet revery seizes your senses, and you lose yourself with a delicious drunkness in the immensity of this beautiful system with which you identify yourself. Then all particular objects fall away; you see nothing and feel nothing except in the whole...I never mediate or dream more delightfully then when I forget my self. I feel indescribable ecstasy, delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of beings, in identifying myself with the whole of nature.

-Rousseau, Jean-Jacques: The Social Contract

Document 3

"Nothing remains," said his master, "but to sell our lives as dearly as possible; they will undoubtedly look into the arbor; we must die sword in hand." Candide

"Atheism and fanaticism are two monsters which may tear society into pieces; but the atheist preserves his reason, which checks his propensity to mischief, while the fanatic is under the influence of a madness which is constantly goading him on."

"We shall not extend our views into the depths of theology. God preserve us from such presumption. Humble faith is enough for us. We never assume any other part than that of a mere historian."

-Voltaire

Document 4

I am a sort of spider; and have little else to do but spin my web over again; or creep to some other place and spin there. Alas! for one has nothing to do but amuse himself; I believe that my amusements are as little musing as most folks. But no matter; it makes the hours pass, and is little better than [to pass one's life in ignorance and grossness].

-Thomas Gray, Poet

Document 5

Where Athens, Rome and Sparta stood
There is a moral desert now.
Where Cicero and Antonius lived
A cowled and hypocritical monk
Prays, curses, and deceives.

My purpose has hitherto been simply to familarize the highly refined imagination of the more select classes of poetical readers with beautiful idealisms of moral excellence, aware that until the mind can love and admire and trust, and hope and endure, reasoned principles of moral conduct are seeds cast upon the highway of life which the unconscious passengers trample into dust, although they would bare the harvest of his happiness.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Document 6

"In what does man’s pre-eminence over brute creation consist? The answer is clear as that a half is less than the whole, in Reason. What aquirement exalts one’s being above another? Virtue, we sponatneously reply. For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes, whispers Experience. Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge that distinguish the individual, and direct the laws which bind society…" -Chapter 1

"…Men complain, and with reason, of the follies and caprices of our sex, when they do not keenly satirize our headstrong passions and groveling voices. Behold, I should answer, the naturla effect of ignorance! The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on and the current will run with destructive fury when there are no barriers to break its force. Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives." -Chapter 2

- Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Document 7

"If the labours of the men of science should ever create any material revolution, direct or indirect, in our condition, and in the impressions which we habitually receive, the Poet will sleep then no more than at present; he will be ready to follow the steps of the man of science not only in those general indirect effects, but he will be at his side, carrying sensation into the midst of objects of the science itself. The remotest discoveries of the Chemist, the Botanist, or Mineralogist, will be as proper objects of the Poet’s art as any upon which it can be employed, if the time shall ever come when these tings shall be familiar to us, and the relations under which they are contemplated by the followers of these respective sciences shall be manifestly and palpably material to us as enjoying and suffering beings. If the time should ever come when what is now called science, thus familiarized to men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of flesh and blood, the Poet will lend his divine spirit to aid the transfiguration, and will welcome the Being thus produced as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man."

- William Wordsworth

Document 8

"A poem is that species of composition, which is opposed to works of science by having for its immediate object pleasure, not truth; and from all other species- (having this object in common with it)- it is discriminated by proposing to itself such delight from the whole, as is compatible with a distinct gratification from each component part."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Document 9

"Other men make up their minds to act without thinking, nor are they conscious of the causes which move them, not even knowing that such exist. The philosopher, on the contrary, distinguishes the causes to what extent he may, often anticipates them, and knowingly surrenders himself to them... Reasonis in the estimation of the philosopher what grace is to the Christian. Grace determines the Christian's action; reason the philosopher's.

Other men are carried away by their passions, so that the acts which they produce do not proceed from reflection. These are the men who move in darkness; while the philosopher, even in his passions, moves only after reflection. He marches at night, but a torch goes on ahead."

- Denis Diderot, The Philosophe

Document 10

"Well, I compare my life to a large Mansion of Many Apartments, two of which I can only describe, the doors of the rest being as yet shut upon me. The first we step into we call the infant or thoughtless chamber, in which we remain as long as we do not think. We remain there a long while, and notwithstanding the doors of the second Chamber remain wide open, showing a bright appearance, we care not to hasten into it; but are at length imperceptibly impelled by the awakening of the thinking principle within us-- we no sooner get into teh second chamber, which I shall call the Chamber of Maiden--Thought, than we become intoxicated with the light and amosphere, we see nothing byt pleasant wonders, and think of delaying there forever in delight. However, among the effects this breathing is father of is that tremendous one of sharpening one's vision into the heart and nature of Man-- of convincing one's nerves that the world is full of Misery and Heartbreak, Pain, Sickness and oppression--whereby this Chamber of Maiden-Thought becomes gradually darken'd on all sides....Now if we live, we go on thinking, we too shall explore them."

- John Keats