Date: 1733, 1742
"I take the Mind or Soul of Man not to be so perfectly indifferent to receive all Impressions, as a Rasa Tabula, or white Paper."
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1742 [see first edition, 1733]
"The Mind, like a Tabula rasa, easyly receives the first Impression; and, like that, when the first Impression is deeply made, it with Difficulty admits of an Erasement of the first Characters, which in some Minds are indelible"
preview | full record— Cooke, Thomas (1703-1756)
Date: 1734
"We see and feel these limbs, and this flesh of ours; we are acquainted at least with the outside of this animal machine, and sometimes call it ourselves, though philosophy and reason would rather say, it is our house or tabernacle, because we possess it, or dwell in it: it is our en...
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: 1734
"A surprising Phænomenon of nature is this, that the soul of man, which ranges abroad though the heavens, and the earth, and the deep waters, and unfolds a thousand mysteries of nature, which penetrates the systems of stars and suns, worlds upon worlds, should be so unhappy a stranger at home, an...
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 1735
"Poetical Justice extends only to such as the Law cannot lay hold of, such as are to be tried in Foro Conscientiae, where the Delinquent, being strongly touched by a Resemblance of Himself, may amend."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1736
"Upon the whole, then, our organs of sense and our limbs are certainly instruments which the living persons, ourselves, make use of to perceive and move with: there is not any probability that they are any more; nor consequently, that we have any other kind of relation to them, that what we may h...
preview | full record— Butler, Joseph (1692-1752)
Date: May 6, 1736
"To express this to us by Similitudes both just and beautiful; some Philosophers compare an human Soul to an empty Cabinet, of inexpressible Value for the Matter and Workmanship: and particularly, for the wonderful Contrivance of it, as having all imaginable Conveniencies within, for treasuring u...
preview | full record— Denne, John (1693-1767)
Date: May 6, 1736
"Others, with equal truth and justice, have likened the Minds of Children to a rasa Tabula, or white Paper, whereon we may imprint, or write what Characters we please; which will prove so lasting, as not to be effaced without injuring or destroying the Beauty of the whole."
preview | full record— Denne, John (1693-1767)
Date: May 6, 1736
"These first Characters therefore ought to be deeply and beautifully struck, and the Learning they express should be of great Price. And this, if timely Care be taken, may be done with ease because the Mind is then soft and tender: and because Truth and Right are by the nature of Things, as pleas...
preview | full record— Denne, John (1693-1767)
Date: 1737
"I say, I see it was so evenly carried without Prejudice, (whether it were a true Accusation of the one part, or a Practice of a false Accusation on the other) as shewed plainly that his majesty's Judgment was tanquam tabula rasa, as a clean Pair of tables, and his Ear tanquam janua aperta, as a ...
preview | full record— Holles, John, Earl of Clare (ca. 1565-1637)