Date: 1744

"A mere existence or being is an indifferent thing, ('tis a Rasa Tabula) that may be coloured over with sin or holiness: and accordingly it receives its value from these; as a picture is esteemed not from the materials upon which it is drawn, but from the draught itself."

— South, Robert (1634-1716)

Date: 1744

"Read and revere the sacred page; a page / Where triumphs Immortality; a page / Which not the whole creation could produce; / Which not the conflagration shall destroy; / In Nature's ruins not one letter lost: / 'Tis printed in the minds of gods for ever."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"What wealth in senses such as these! What wealth / In Fancy fired to form a fairer scene / Than Sense surveys! in Memory's firm record!"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1745

"They are plainly and explicitly published; easily understood; and in fair and legible characters writ in every man's heart; and the wisdom, reason, and necessity of them are readily discerned."

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1746

The native heart may be read in man

— Collins, William (1721-1759)

Date: 1747

"Now the Purpose for which [Lestrange] principally intended his Book, as in his Preface he spends a great many Words to inform us, was for the Use and Instruction of Children; who being, as it were, a mere rasa tabula, or blank Paper, are ready indifferently for any Opinion, good or bad, taking a...

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"What sort of Children therefore are the Blank Paper, upon which such Morality as this ought to be written?"

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"Let the Children of Italy, France, Spain, and the rest of the Popish Countries, furnish him with Blank Paper for Principles, of which free-born Britons are not capable."

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747-8

One's "delicate and even mind" may be see in "the very cut of her letters"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1749

"With a diamond's point it [sin] stands / Engraven on my heart / Wrote by mine, and Satan's hands / It mocks the' eraser's art."

— Wesley, John and Charles