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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)

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Date: 1701

"For I will here suppose the Soul, or Mind of Man, to be at first, rasa Tabula, like fair paper, that hath no connate Character or Idea's imprinted upon it (as that Learned Theorist Mr. Lock hath, I suppose, fully proved) and that it is not sensible of any thing at its coming...

— Cumberland, Richard (1632-1718)

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Date: 1692, 1702

"The Soul of Man comes into this World at least as Ill-informed of the Affairs of Grace, as those of Nature. It is in all respects, a Rasa tabula, a meer Blank, and hath need of being fill'd with every thing"

— Jurieu, Pierre (1637-1713); Fleetwood, William, Trans.

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Date: 1702

"True Friends ... have their Names engraven / In one anothers Hearts, which cannot be / Cancell'd or Raz'd by Earths vain obloquy"

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

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Date: w. 1682, 1702

"Their Names, engraven in our Hearts, may not / Be raz'd, or cancel'd, or in time forgot"

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

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Date: w. 1682, 1702

Chastity may "tincture Humane Hearts with holy Awe, / And deeply there engrave the Royal Law"

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

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Date: 1703-4

"All therefore that [Jesus] cou'd take from his Mother, must be the Weaknesses, not the Faults of Humanity, not proceeding from her like a rasa tabula, with no Impressions at all, but indifferent to good and evil"

— Anonymous

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Date: 1704

"My Soul's, as to that Affair, a clean sheet of Paper, a meer Tabula Rasa; therefore, Sir, you may impress any Characters in the World upon it; Mahometan, Jew, or Pagan, 'tis all a case to your poor distressed Servant"

— Brown, Thomas (bap. 1663, d. 1704)

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Date: 1704

"It's a kind of tabula rasa, a Blank, that almost with the same Facility receives the Characters of Angel, and of Devil; but when once it's stained with Sin, when it's by-assed by ill Habits, and worse Principles, you will find it stubborn and rebellious."

— Darrell, William (1651-1721)

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Date: 1704

"But it does hence follow, That the Soul of Man in its Original Constitution, and in the most perfect State of its nature, is not a Rasa Tabula, without any Notions or Ideas of Truth imprinted on it; but that it has its most natural and perfect Knowledge from within, from contemplating its...

— Sherlock, William (1639/40-1707)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.