theme,metaphor,work_id,dictionary,provenance,id,created_at,updated_at,reviewed_on,comments,text,context
Blank Slate,"""The mind of man is, at first, a kind of tabula rasa; or like a piece of blank paper, and bears no original inscriptions, when we come into the world; we owe all the characters afterwards drawn upon it, to the impressions made upon our senses; to education, custom, and the like.""",5196,Writing,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",13969,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:39:37 UTC,,"•Cross-reference: this pasage is borrowed from Fordyce. Note how Fordyce is here edited: he is made to sound more Lockean! Fielding writes in preface: ""though the learned critic may, perhaps, object that there is nothing new, or little of my own, to be found in the following sheets, yet as they may serve to revive his acquaintance with some of those former beautiful sentiments, which he formerly met with in his travels through the work of antient sages, 'tis to be hoped his candour will suffer the intention of the author to apologize for any little defects to be met with in the work itself.""","The mind of man is, at first, a kind of tabula rasa; or like a piece of blank paper, and bears no original inscriptions, when we come into the world; we owe all the characters afterwards drawn upon it, to the impressions made upon our senses; to education, custom, and the like. We have an innate, and almost insuperable propensity to imitation, and imbibe manners as we do opinions; if therefore you do not prepossess the mind with true opinions, it will as readily embrace false ones; and if you do not accustom your pupil to good habits, bad ones will be contracted. For the mind must take some forms, and according to the mould of sxample, company and fortune, into which it is cast, such will that form be. [...]
(p. 46)",Chap. XXXII. Education
Blank Slate,"""Do thou O Tablet, either both, or nothing; either let thy words and sense go together, or be thy bosom a rasa tabula.""",5239,Writing,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",14105,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2014-02-05 16:15:59 UTC,,"","'Tis still a dream; or else such stuff, as madmen
tongue, and brain not: either both, or nothing;
Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such
As sense cannot untie.--]
The obscurity of this passage arises from part of it being spoke of the prophesy, and part to it. This writing on the Tablet (says he) is still a dream, or else the raving of madness. Do thou O Tablet, either both, or nothing; either let thy words and sense go together, or be thy bosom a rasa tabula.
As the words now stand they are nonsense, or at least involve in them a sense which I cannot develope.
WARBURTON.
(p. 381n)",Note to Cymbeline
Blank Slate,"""Cecil is infinitely desirous that King James, as he favours him, should write the letter of satisfaction concerning 40 by the very next dispatch; for it should seem to me, by secret intimation from Cecil this afternoon, that the party is a little tickle, and like rasa tabula, that is, ready both to receive and to retain the first impression that is settled, and therefore to put his Majesty in mind of the old maxim of our law, Quod nullius est, occupanti conceditur, and in re dubia melior est conditio possidentis.""",5267,"","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",14181,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:40:12 UTC,,"","Cecil is infinitely desirous that King James, as he favours him, should write the letter of satisfaction concerning 40 by the very next dispatch; for it should seem to me, by secret intimation from Cecil this afternoon, that the party is a little tickle, and like rasa tabula, that is, ready both to receive and to retain the first impression that is settled, and therefore to put his Majesty in mind of the old maxim of our law, Quod nullius est, occupanti conceditur, and in re dubia melior est conditio possidentis. [...]
(pp. 110-1)",Letter VIII
Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,"""Vain therefore, and entirely to be rejected, is that Principle published to the World, by a celebrated Philosopher of the last Century, namely, that the Soul in its first created State, has nothing in it, but is a mere Rasa Tabula, or blank Paper.""",5324,Writing,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",14296,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:40:31 UTC,,•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Paper,"Vain therefore, and entirely to be rejected, is that Principle published to the World, by a celebrated Philosopher of the last Century, namely, that the Soul in its first created State, has nothing in it, but is a mere Rasa Tabula, or blank Paper. A Fiction, that is contra- [end page 100] dicted by all that we know of every created Thing in Nature.
For every Creature of this World, animate or inanimate, is in its Degree, a Microcosm of all the Powers, that are in the great World, of which it is a Part. And every Thing, or Creature is That, which it is, because the Powers of this World, or Properties of Nature, are in such, or such a Combination included, or treasured up in its Essence, and give it its Difference from other Things. --But nothing through all this Universe has in its Essence, only the Nature of a Rasa Tabula, or blank paper, but is in its kind, full of Riches, and Powers of all outward Nature.
(pp. 100-1)",""
Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,"""That the mind of man, previous to the information of the senses, is a tabula rasa, a blank, without ideas, without knowledge, is a doctrine too well supported by this great master of reason to suffer a shock.""",5344,Metaphor,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",14333,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2014-09-01 18:22:52 UTC,,"•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Blank
•Note to line ""Locke's observations ... the impossibilty of having any ideas without the previous action of the organs of the body, and the like demonstrable doctrines"" (135)","That the mind of man, previous to the information of the senses, is a tabula rasa, a blank, without ideas, without knowledge, is a doctrine too well supported by this great master of reason to suffer a shock. It has been, notwithstanding, attacked with arguments drawn from professor Saunderson, who excelled in the mathematics, and was acquainted with the properties of cones, cylinders, squares, circles, &c. though blind from a year old.
(p. 135n)",Chapter XIV. On Conjectural Metaphysics
"","""As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination.""",5351,Impressions and Writing,Reading in Gale's Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).,14341,2004-01-26 00:00:00 UTC,2013-10-09 03:26:02 UTC,,"•INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY? Cross-reference: Blair cites this passage in his Lectures in a discussion a explanatory comparisons: ""In Comparisons of this nature, the understanding is concerned much more than the fancy: and therefore the only rules to be observed, with respect to them are, that they be clear, and that they be useful; that they tend to render our conception of the principal object more distinct; and that they do not lead our view aside, and bewilder it with any false light"" (Lect. xvii, p. 407).","As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination. SENSE is its receptive Power; IMAGINATION, its retentive. Had it Sense without Imagination, it would not be as Wax, but as Water, where tho' all Impressions may be instantly made, yet as soon as made they are as instantly lost.
(Book III, ch. iv, pp. 356-7)",""
Blank Slate,"""For were that mind, what some suppose, a mere tabula rasa upon its first coming into the world, a pure and perfect blank, without one single impression; who can deny that it would be right, that it would be humane and wise, to make, in the earliest moments, those impressions upon it, which long and careful experience hath proved to be just in themselves, and advantageous in their consequences?""",5364,Writing,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",14372,2006-10-13 00:00:00 UTC,2009-09-14 19:40:43 UTC,,•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa and Blank,"[...] The wise Man recommends that children should be accustomed to the yoke from their infancy; and St. Paul frequently exhorts parents to teach and admonish their children:--a practice unquestionably right, upon every idea of the human mind. For were that mind, what some suppose, a mere tabula rasa upon its first coming into the world, a pure and perfect blank, without one single impression; who can deny that it would be right, that it would be humane and wise, to make, in the earliest moments, those impressions upon it, which long and careful experience hath proved to be just in themselves, and advantageous in their consequences?
But when we are taught from divine revelation that this ideas of the soul is groundless; when we are assured from thence, that the human mind is corrupt and prone to evil, a truth to which we ourselves must daily bear [end page 6] ample testimony: it becomes, in this view, a duty of the highest importance; nay, I will add, of the tenderest humanity, early to supply the infant mind with such maxims, as may prove a sufficient bias to the corruption of its nature, and enable it, through divine grace, to continue steadfast in the practice of virtue.
(pp. 6-7)",Sermon I
"","""Though you are so happy as to have parents, who are both capable and desirous of giving you all proper instruction, yet I, who love you so tenderly, cannot help fondly wishing to contribute something, if possible, to your improvement and welfare: and, as I am so far separated from you, that it is only by pen and ink I can offer you my sentiments, I will hope that your attention may be engaged, by seeing on paper, from the hand of one of your warmest friends, Truths of the highest importance, which, though you may not find new, can never be too deeply engraven on your mind.""",6939,Writing,Reading,18683,2011-06-16 16:34:40 UTC,2011-06-16 16:41:46 UTC,,"pp. 1-2 in PGDP edition
","Though you are so happy as to have parents, who are both capable and desirous of giving you all proper instruction, yet I, who love you so tenderly, cannot help fondly wishing to contribute something, if possible, to your improvement and welfare: and, as I am so far separated from you, that it is only by pen and ink I can offer you my sentiments, I will hope that your attention may be engaged, by seeing on paper, from the hand of one of your warmest friends, Truths of the highest importance, which, though you may not find new, can never be too deeply engraven on your mind. Some of them perhaps may make no great impression at present, and yet may so far gain a place in your memory as readily to return to your thoughts when occasion recalls them. And, if you pay me the compliment of preserving my letters, you may possibly re-peruse them at some future period, when concurring circumstances may give them additional weight:—and thus they may prove more effectual than the same things spoken in conversation. But, however this may prove, I cannot resist the desire of trying in some degree to be useful to you on your setting out in a life of trial and difficulty; your success in which must determine your fate for ever.
(I, pp. 1-3)","Volume I, Letter 1"
"","""Memory in a great measure depends upon the body, and is often much injured by a disease, and afterwards recovered with recovering strength, which on the Cartesian hypothesis is accounted for, by supposing that those parts of the brain, on which these characters are written, are by such disorders relaxed, in the same manner as the nerves in the other parts of the body are liable to be weakened or disabled.""",7094,Writing,Reading in Google Books,19165,2011-09-15 17:28:18 UTC,2011-09-15 17:28:39 UTC,,"","4. Memory in a great measure depends upon the body, and is often much injured by a disease, and afterwards recovered with recovering strength, which on the Cartesian hypothesis is accounted for, by supposing that those parts of the brain, on which these characters are written, are by such disorders relaxed, in the same manner as the nerves in the other parts of the body are liable to be weakened or disabled.
5. The memory differs at different ages. Children soon forget, as they soon learn: old people learn with difficulty, and remember best what they learnt when young. That is, say the Cartesians, because the brain growing by degrees more dry retains old characters, but does not easily admit new.
6. Dreams generally make little impression on the memory: because, say some, the animal spirits are then but gently moved.
(Part I, Proposition VIII, p. 24)",""
"","""Children soon forget, as they soon learn: old people learn with difficulty, and remember best what they learnt when young. That is, say the Cartesians because the brain growing by degrees more dry retains old characters, but does not easily admit new.""",7094,Writing,Reading in Google Books,19166,2011-09-15 17:29:55 UTC,2011-09-15 17:30:17 UTC,,"","4. Memory in a great measure depends upon the body, and is often much injured by a disease, and afterwards recovered with recovering strength, which on the Cartesian hypothesis is accounted for, by supposing that those parts of the brain, on which these characters are written, are by such disorders relaxed, in the same manner as the nerves in the other parts of the body are liable to be weakened or disabled.
5. The memory differs at different ages. Children soon forget, as they soon learn: old people learn with difficulty, and remember best what they learnt when young. That is, say the Cartesians, because the brain growing by degrees more dry retains old characters, but does not easily admit new.
6. Dreams generally make little impression on the memory: because, say some, the animal spirits are then but gently moved.
(Part I, Proposition VIII, p. 24)",""