Date: 1795

"The infant mind has been compared to a tabula rasa, or sheet of clean paper: but there is this essential difference, as hath been well observed, between the opposite objects of comparison they are not both equally Indifferent to the inscription which they are to bear."

— Napleton, John (1738/9-1817)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"The action of the pen will doubtless imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the waste of time; and I must agree with Dr. Johnson, (Idler, No. 74.) 'that what is twice read, is commonly better remember...

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1797

"Their [young persons'] minds are like a sheet of white paper, which takes any impression that it is proposed to make upon it."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1798

"There is none comes to the school of Christ suiting the philosopher's word ut tabula rasa, as blank paper, to receive his doctrine; but, on the contrary, all scribbled and blurred with such base habits as these, malice, hypocrisy, envy, &c."

— Leighton, Robert (1611-1684)

Date: 1798

"Therefore the first work is to raze out these, to cleanse and purify the heart from these blots, these foul characters, that it may receive the impression of the image of God."

— Leighton, Robert (1611-1684)

Date: 1800

"The great Mr. Locke, and several other ingenious philosophers, have represented the human intellect, antecedent to its intercourse with external objects, as a tabula rasa, or a substance capable of receiving any impressions, but upon which no original impressions of any kind are stamped."

— Smellie, William (1740-1795)