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The idea of a "mind's eye" goes back at least to [[Cicero]]'s reference to '''''mentis oculi''''' during his discussion of the orator's appropriate use of [[simile]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XCU9AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA535 Cicero, ''De Oratore'', Liber III: XLI: 163.]</ref>

In this discussion, Cicero observedsaid that allusions[[allusion]]s to "the [[Gulf of Gabès|Syrtis]] of his patrimony" and "the [[Charybdis]] of his possessions" involved similes that were "too far-fetched"; and he advised the orator to, instead, just speak of "the rock" and "the gulf" (respectively) — on the grounds that, "The eyes of the mind are more easily directed to those objects which we have seen, than to those which we have only heard."<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/ciceroonoratorya00ciceuoft#page/239/mode/1upWatson, J.S. (trans. and ed.), ''Cicero on Oratory and Orators'', Harper & Brothers, (New York), 1875: Book III, C.XLI, p.239.]</ref>

The concept of "the mind's eye" first appeared in English in [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer's]] ({{circa|1387}}) [[The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale|Man of Law's Tale]] in his [[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]], where he tells us that one of the three men dwelling in a castle was blind, and could only see with "the eyes of his mind"—namely, those eyes "with which all men see after they have become blind."<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/canterburyprol00chauuoft#page/78/mode/1up ''The Man of Laws Tale'', lines 550-553.]</ref>