Date: 1700

"Better the Mind no Notions had retain'd, / But still a fair Unwritten Blank remain'd; / For now, who Truth from Falshood wou'd discern; / must first disrobe the Mind, and all Unlearn."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

Date: 1705

"In Characters of Malice, Pride, and Fraud, / Stamp'd on his Mind, my Image I applaud."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1705

" In Characters of Malice, Pride, and Fraud, / Stamp'd on his Mind, my Image I applaud."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1705

"The Soul of Man, before it has received any Impression on it, is compar'd to a Rasa Tabula, by Philosophers, that is, It is as it were, a plain capable of any Impression whatever"

— Coward, William (b. 1656/7, d. in or before 1725)

Date: 1705, 1709

"Has She a Bodkin and a Card? / She'll prick her Mind."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1707

"There [in a softer mind] shall his sacred spirit dwell, / And deep engrave his law, / And every motion of our souls / To swift obedience draw."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1707

"'O let my Name ingraven stand, / 'Both on thy Heart and on thy Hand."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1708

"'The Characters that Nature has impress'd, / 'Keep their primæval Stamp on ev'ry Breast"

— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730); Aesop

Date: 1708

"'And he that wou'd, what's printed there, erase, / 'As well might hope to blanch a Negro's Face."

— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730); Aesop

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)