Date: 1740

"To the instructed Man [Ideas of Sensation] afford a vast Quantity of Materials to exercise Knowledge on, but without being taught that [end page 26] Knowledge to apply them to artificial Purposes, they would signify no more to us, besides assisting the Instincts to take Care of that Body they we...

— Philalethes [pseud.]

Date: 1740

"Michael Angelo used to say, that a Statuary was a Man who only pared off Superfluities, since every Block of Marble contained in it all possible Forms; but without a Phidias, a Praxiteles, or a Michael Angelo himself, the Marble will lie for ever rude shapeless Mass i...

— Philalethes [pseud.]

Date: 1740

"Some have said that the human Mind contained within it the Seeds of all Sciences; the Mind is indeed a Soil in which any of these Seeds may be sown, but it must be cultivated; and without an Husbandman it will continue a mere Tabula rasa, except what the Instincts write on it, without a p...

— Philalethes [pseud.]

Date: 1740

"I have quoted from Mr. Locke, that the human Mind is a Tabula rasa, that any Thing may be writ upon it, and that it cannot have any Thing unless it be write there, but will remain a Blank for ever; that there is a vast variety of Inscriptions made on it, which shews that the Stuff ...

— Philalethes [pseud.]