Date: 1741, 1742, 1755

"For it was Aristotle's opinion, who compared the soul to a 'rasa tabula', that human sensations and reflections were passions: These therefore are what he finely calls, the 'passive intelligent'; which, he says, shall cease, or is corruptible."

— Warburton, William (1698-1779)

Date: 1748

"But should some swain more skillful than the rest, / his name on this cold marble breast, / Not rolling ages could deface that name."

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

Date: 1752, 1790

Apollo's "sacred fire" inspires the bard's breast, "Like the fair empty sheet he hangs to view, / Void, and unfurnish'd, till inspir'd by you."

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1752, 1790

"O let one beam, one kind inlightning ray / At once upon his mind and paper play!"

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1752, 1790

"The yielding paper's pure, but vacant breast, / By her fair hand and flowing pen imprest, / At ev'ry touch more animated grows."

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1752

"Yet hold me near Thee; set me as a Seal, / Deep on thy dear dear Heart!"

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1752

"Go, Christian! with th' endearing Pledges seal'd / Fresh on thy Soul, resembling Pattern show/ How Jesus liv'd"

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1757

"And whatever any talk of (the rasa tabula,) an indifferency by nature, to virtue or vice: never could I find any such thing; but all men inclined the wrong way: and abundance of work, by discipline, and the grace of God, to make any one better than the rest."

— Jenks, Benjamin (bap. 1648, d. 1724)

Date: 1765 [1764]

"Manfred, who, though he had distinguished her by great indulgence, had imprinted her mind with terror from his causeless rigour to such amiable princesses as Hippolita and Matilda."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)

Date: 1765 [1764]

"There is not a sentiment engraven on my heart, that does not venerate you and yours."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)