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Date: 1765

"I have also used the analogy of a veined block of marble, as opposed to an entirely homogenous block of marble, or to a blank tablet--what the philosophers call a tabula rasa"

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

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Date: 1766

"Cecil is infinitely desirous that King James, as he favours him, should write the letter of satisfaction concerning 40 by the very next dispatch; for it should seem to me, by secret intimation from Cecil this afternoon, that the party is a little tickle, and like rasa tabula, that is, rea...

— Howard, Howard, Earl of Northampton (1540-1614)

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Date: 1766

"YOU see already, my dear patron, by the date of my letter, that I am arrived at the place of my destination; but you cannot see all the charms which I find in it; to do this, you should be acquainted with the situation, and be able to read my heart. You ought, however, to read at least those of ...

— Hume, David (1711-1776); with Rousseau, d'Alembert, and Walpole

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Date: 1767

"He is now reduced to the greatest want and beggary, he is become a meer tabula rasa, a sheet of blank paper, a page of perfect inanity."

— Campbell, Archibald (bap. 1724, d. 1780)

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Date: 1769

"Vain therefore, and entirely to be rejected, is that Principle published to the World, by a celebrated Philosopher of the last Century, namely, that the Soul in its first created State, has nothing in it, but is a mere Rasa Tabula, or blank Paper."

— Law, William (1686-1761)

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Date: 1769

"Of the two great Ordinances of Christianity, Baptism and the LORD's Supper, how does the former imprint upon the rasa Tabula of our infant Minds the most significant Emblems of Purity and Holiness, and lay the strongest Obligations upon us to keep ourselves from those Pollutions which def...

— Crossman, Henry (1711-1792)

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Date: 1769

"The learned and ingenious Brown, in his Procedure of the Understanding, observes that 'common sense and Reason, to them who will use them in a plain Way, make it evident that we have no immediate or direct Idea or Perception of Sprit, or any of its Operations, as we have of Body and its Qualitie...

— Jackson, W., of Lichfield Close (fl. 1769)

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Date: 1770

"It is a favourite maxim with Mr LOCKE, as it was with some ancient philosophers, that the human soul, previous to education, is like a piece of white paper, or tabula rasa, and this simile, harmless as it may appear, betrays our great modern into several important mistakes."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

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Date: 1770

"That the mind of man, previous to the information of the senses, is a tabula rasa, a blank, without ideas, without knowledge, is a doctrine too well supported by this great master of reason to suffer a shock."

— Baker, William (1742-1785)

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Date: 1771

"As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination."

— Harris, James (1709-1780)

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