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Date: 1704

"It's a kind of tabula rasa, a Blank, that almost with the same Facility receives the Characters of Angel, and of Devil; but when once it's stained with Sin, when it's by-assed by ill Habits, and worse Principles, you will find it stubborn and rebellious."

— Darrell, William (1651-1721)

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Date: 1704

"But it does hence follow, That the Soul of Man in its Original Constitution, and in the most perfect State of its nature, is not a Rasa Tabula, without any Notions or Ideas of Truth imprinted on it; but that it has its most natural and perfect Knowledge from within, from contemplating its...

— Sherlock, William (1639/40-1707)

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Date: 1704

"Has this Old Man, who was once an admirable Scholar, no Ideas left in his mind? Is his Soul become a Rasa Tabula again?"

— Sherlock, William (1639/40-1707)

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Date: 1704

"But this is the great Difficulty, What the Voice and Sense of Nature is; which if it signify any Thing, must signify some Natural and Inbred Knowledge; which is exploded as a ridiculous Conceit by some great and profound Philosophers of our Age; who will allow no Innate Knowledge, but assert the...

— Sherlock, William (1639/40-1707)

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Date: 1704

"Now I confess I am of Opinion, that the Mind is so far from being a Rasa Tabula, that it is plentifully furnished with all Ideas of Truth, which are the Seeds and Principles of all Knowledge we have, or ever shall have; that we cannot form any one true Notion, but what is founded in some ...

— Sherlock, William (1639/40-1707)

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Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711

"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1707

"Lest any understand what I have said a few Pages hence as if I wholly denied common Innate Principles, observe, That it is only actual Connate Knowledge that I deny, and in respect to which I say that the Soul is rasa tabula; but I confess a Natural Passive power for the knowing of them a...

— Baxter, Richard (1615-1691)

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Date: 1708, 1737, 1742

"Je ne suis nullement pour la tabula rasa de Aristote, & il y a quelque chose de solide dans ce que Platon appelloit le reminiscence."

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

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Date: 1710, 1734

There are ideas in the mind of God, "which are so many marks or notes that direct him how to produce sensations in our minds" just as a musician uses notes to produce a tune.

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

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Date: From Saturd. March 11. to Tuesd. March 14. 1710

"It was then very pleasant to look into the Hearts of the whole Company; for the Balls of Sight are so form'd, that one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to another to read his Heart with."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

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