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Date: 1728

"With respect to the simple Perception of Mere Sense he is still upon the same Level with Brutes; he is altogether Passive; he retains all the Signatures and Impressions of outward Objects, but in the very Order only in which they are stamped; with Transposing or Altering, Dividing, or Compoundin...

— Browne, Peter (d. 1735)

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Date: 1729

"Secondly, 'Tis just matter of wonder & astonishment that ever one spark of faith was kindled in such an heart as thine is; [end page 124] an heart which had no predisposition or inclination in the least to believe; yea, it was not rasa tabula, like clean paper, void of any impression of f...

— Flavell, John (bap. 1630, d. 1691)

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Date: 1729

"The Brain of a Child, newly born, is Charte Blanche; and, as you have hinted very justly, we have no Ideas, which we are not obliged for to our Senses."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1729

"But as the first Images are lost, so they are continually succeeded by new ones; and the Brain at first serves as a Slate to Cypher, or a Sampler to work upon."

— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)

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Date: 1730

"I obliterated all former Notions received from Education, Discourse, or Reading, in Relation to Actions or Characters of any Persons or Parties; and turned my Mind into a Rasa Tabula, that the Impressions I should receive from this more accurate Examination I was going to begin, might n...

— Baker, Richard, Sir (c. 1568-1645)

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Date: 1730

"Now, if such a complex being were in nature, how would that spiritual Soul act in that Body, that in its first Union with it (excepting some universal Principles) is a rasa Tabula, as a white Paper, without the Notices of Things written in it?"

— Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe (1651-1715); Anonymous

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Date: April 30, 1730

"Nay, the very insipid phlegm, and even the caput mortuum of the brain, after this chemical operation, being mixed with ink, and spred upon paper, have the same combustible, noisy qualities, with the spirits themselves."

— Richard Russel and John Martyn

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Date: 1730

"The former of these, our Free-thinkers, out of their singular wisdom, and benevolence to makind, endeavour to erase from the minds of men."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

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Date: 1731

"And first of all, that the Soul is not a meer Rasa Tabula, a naked and Passive Thing, which has no innate Furniture or Activity its own, nor any thing at all in it, but what was impressed on it from without."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

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Date: 1731

"The Mind is a meer tabula rasa, originally without any Impression, Stamp or Character whatsoever, (unless we'll suppose it the same with Brutes) but capable of any, and most apt to receive the first that offers, till external Objects furnish it with distinct Ideas, and from thence ...

— Anonymous

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