work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4162,Blank Slate,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"The Mind of Man is allowed to be a Rasa Tabula, which in the Old Account of things, alludes to those Tablets of Wax, on which the Ancients wrote and engross'd all their Business; But in a Modern Translation, this can signify nothing else, but a fair Sheet of Paper: over which we must suppose there are Swarms and Clusters of Letters, Vowels, and Consonants, the Elements and Atoms of Literature, continually playing and hovering for this System is like that of the Origin of the World, Man being in himself a Perfect Microcosm) and upon a certain time, when these volatile Intelligences are in the mind of it, they settle and coagulate: and by degrees form themselves into first Principles and Postulata, and so into Consequences and Corollaries, and thence gradually into Notions, Systems, and Hypotheses; And this is the Rise, Progress, and Perfection of Human Understanding, so far as that Understanding appears to the World, under the Artificial Notions of Printing and Publishing. From this Account it is plain, that the Desire of Being in Print, is an Idea, if not Innate, yet one of the first that gets into our Minds: whence all Men express a Natural Propensity and Inclination, to be Authors; And this may be easily traced in the Progress that Rational Beings make towards Knowledge and Wisdom [...]
(III, Preface)",,10733,"•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa, Paper--REVISIT, have I?","""The Mind of Man is allowed to be a Rasa Tabula, which in the Old Account of things, alludes to those Tablets of Wax, on which the Ancients wrote and engross'd all their Business; But in a Modern Translation, this can signify nothing else, but a fair Sheet of Paper: over which we must suppose there are Swarms and Clusters of Letters, Vowels, and Consonants, the Elements and Atoms of Literature, continually playing and hovering (for this System is like that of the Origin of the World, Man being in himself a Perfect Microcosm) and upon a certain time, when these volatile Intelligences are in the mind of it, they settle and coagulate: and by degrees form themselves into first Principles and Postulata, and so into Consequences and Corollaries, and thence gradually into Notions, Systems, and Hypotheses; And this is the Rise, Progress, and Perfection of Human Understanding, so far as that Understanding appears to the World, under the Artificial Notions of Printing and Publishing.""",Writing,2012-08-01 18:10:10 UTC,Preface
4162,Innate Ideas,Searching in ECCO,2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"The Mind of Man is allowed to be a Rasa Tabula, which in the Old Account of things, alludes to those Tablets of Wax, on which the Ancients wrote and engros'd all their Business; But in a Modern Translation, this can signify nothing else, but a fair Sheet of Paper: over which we must suppose there are Swarms and Clusters of Letters, Vowels, and Consonants, the Elements and Atoms of Literature, continually playing and hovering (for this System is like that of the Origin of the World, Man being in himself a Perfect Microcosm) and upon a certain time, when these volatile Intelligences are in the mind of it, they settle and coagulate: and by degrees form themselves into first Principles and Postulata, and so into Consequences and Corollaries, and thence gradually into Notions, Systems, and Hypotheses; And this is the Rise, Progress, and Perfection of Human Understanding, so far as that Understanding appears to the World, under the Artificial Notions of Printing and Publishing.
From this Account it is plain, that the Desire of Being in Print, is an Idea, if not Unnate, yet one of the first that gets into our Minds: whence all Men express a Natural Propensity and Inclination, to be Authors; And this may be easily traced in the Progress that Rational Beings make towards Knowledge and Wisdom [...]",,10734,"•I've included twice: Tabula Rasa, Paper","""From this Account it is plain, that the Desire of Being in Print, is an Idea, if not Unnate, yet one of the first that gets into our Minds: whence all Men express a Natural Propensity and Inclination, to be Authors""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:35:14 UTC,Preface
4162,Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there; Now Human Knowledge was to be had there; Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all means to be sent up in all hast to the University, and might I make no doubt be immediately Matriculated at the Labritory, without paying any Fees. Mr. Lock has not been pleased to Date the Age and Duration of this sort of Creatures: Neither does he assure us, whither the First Notion engraved on the Mental Surface, be a Rawhead, a Spoon, Pap, Thunder, of an Old Woman; There are Questionless, some [end page 7] Accidents and Disasters waiting round a Cradle, as also a Testacious and Impenitrable Species of Skulls, peculiar to some Constitutions, that may for a long time secure the well temper'd Brain from a too forward and hasty Impression; but whither this is commonly the Case of those who are thought proper to be sent to the University, is I think not yet agreed upon by Philosophers; Certain it is, that there is all the Reason in the World to believe, that the Doctor was in quite other Circumstances upon his Removal from one Nursery to t'other; For my own part (and I love to measure the Excellency of others by my own Imperfections) long before I arrived at Oxford, I was so often Complemented with the worthy Titles of, Idle Rogue, Arch Bastard, Unlucky Dog, and sometimes Rebel, Truant, and Sawcebox, among the Tory Criticks: that I soon found I was no Rasa Tabula; I see it in his Looks, says one, I read it in his Face, says another; Now they must be strange Readers indeed, who can see and peruse, where there's nothing written or inscribed; Whither the Doctor did not exceed me in Literature, has been abundantly made out to the World; and till I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity to the Doctor, that he went a Tabula Inscripta to the University, and that this was discernible even on the Reverse of him, in very plain [end page 8] and legible Characters. What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square Rasa Tabula of a Stone under the Education of a Country Cutter, speak sense enough to entitle it to a Place in a Church-yard: and therefore I see no Reason, why a Human Rasa Tabula, with a Country Education, should not deserve a Place in a Church and make a very good Catholick. I would have this Gentleman, the Defender, handsomly fall back into the primitive natural State of an uneducated Rasa Tabula, rather than be blotted over with such a senseless Inscription; A Blank Page exceeds a Treatise, that passes such Scurrilities as thses upon a Learned Doctor, for Wit and Reflection; A Rasa Tabula of a clean Sheet of Paper, has proved a Compliment to a certain Lord, when it was cry'd about as one of his Speeches, and it might have made as good a Treatise for the Defender.
(pp. 7-9)",,10735,"","""In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there.""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:35:14 UTC,Of Dr. W. Tind--
4162,Blank Slate; Lockean Philosophy,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there; Now Human Knowledge was to be had there; Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all means to be sent up in all hast to the University, and might I make no doubt be immediately Matriculated at the Labritory, without paying any Fees. Mr. Lock has not been pleased to Date the Age and Duration of this sort of Creatures: Neither does he assure us, whither the First Notion engraved on the Mental Surface, be a Rawhead, a Spoon, Pap, Thunder, of an Old Woman; There are Questionless, some [end page 7] Accidents and Disasters waiting round a Cradle, as also a Testacious and Impenitrable Species of Skulls, peculiar to some Constitutions, that may for a long time secure the well temper'd Brain from a too forward and hasty Impression; but whither this is commonly the Case of those who are thought proper to be sent to the University, is I think not yet agreed upon by Philosophers; Certain it is, that there is all the Reason in the World to believe, that the Doctor was in quite other Circumstances upon his Removal from one Nursery to t'other; For my own part (and I love to measure the Excellency of others by my own Imperfections) long before I arrived at Oxford, I was so often Complemented with the worthy Titles of, Idle Rogue, Arch Bastard, Unlucky Dog, and sometimes Rebel, Truant, and Sawcebox, among the Tory Criticks: that I soon found I was no Rasa Tabula; I see it in his Looks, says one, I read it in his Face, says another; Now they must be strange Readers indeed, who can see and peruse, where there's nothing written or inscribed; Whither the Doctor did not exceed me in Literature, has been abundantly made out to the World; and till I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity to the Doctor, that he went a Tabula Inscripta to the University, and that this was discernible even on the Reverse of him, in very plain [end page 8] and legible Characters. What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square Rasa Tabula of a Stone under the Education of a Country Cutter, speak sense enough to entitle it to a Place in a Church-yard: and therefore I see no Reason, why a Human Rasa Tabula, with a Country Education, should not deserve a Place in a Church and make a very good Catholick. I would have this Gentleman, the Defender, handsomly fall back into the primitive natural State of an uneducated Rasa Tabula, rather than be blotted over with such a senseless Inscription; A Blank Page exceeds a Treatise, that passes such Scurrilities as thses upon a Learned Doctor, for Wit and Reflection; A Rasa Tabula of a clean Sheet of Paper, has proved a Compliment to a certain Lord, when it was cry'd about as one of his Speeches, and it might have made as good a Treatise for the Defender.
(pp. 7-9)",,10736,•Taking the metaphor literally? Or showing how two senses conflict? INTEREST.,"""Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all means to be sent up in all hast to the University, and might I make no doubt be immediately Matriculated at the Labritory, without paying any Fees.""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:35:14 UTC,Of Dr. W. Tind--
4162,"","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there; Now Human Knowledge was to be had there; Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all means to be sent up in all hast to the University, and might I make no doubt be immediately Matriculated at the Labritory, without paying any Fees. Mr. Lock has not been pleased to Date the Age and Duration of this sort of Creatures: Neither does he assure us, whither the First Notion engraved on the Mental Surface, be a Rawhead, a Spoon, Pap, Thunder, of an Old Woman; There are Questionless, some [end page 7] Accidents and Disasters waiting round a Cradle, as also a Testacious and Impenitrable Species of Skulls, peculiar to some Constitutions, that may for a long time secure the well temper'd Brain from a too forward and hasty Impression; but whither this is commonly the Case of those who are thought proper to be sent to the University, is I think not yet agreed upon by Philosophers; Certain it is, that there is all the Reason in the World to believe, that the Doctor was in quite other Circumstances upon his Removal from one Nursery to t'other; For my own part (and I love to measure the Excellency of others by my own Imperfections) long before I arrived at Oxford, I was so often Complemented with the worthy Titles of, Idle Rogue, Arch Bastard, Unlucky Dog, and sometimes Rebel, Truant, and Sawcebox, among the Tory Criticks: that I soon found I was no Rasa Tabula; I see it in his Looks, says one, I read it in his Face, says another; Now they must be strange Readers indeed, who can see and peruse, where there's nothing written or inscribed; Whither the Doctor did not exceed me in Literature, has been abundantly made out to the World; and till I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity to the Doctor, that he went a Tabula Inscripta to the University, and that this was discernible even on the Reverse of him, in very plain [end page 8] and legible Characters. What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square Rasa Tabula of a Stone under the Education of a Country Cutter, speak sense enough to entitle it to a Place in a Church-yard: and therefore I see no Reason, why a Human Rasa Tabula, with a Country Education, should not deserve a Place in a Church and make a very good Catholick. I would have this Gentleman, the Defender, handsomly fall back into the primitive natural State of an uneducated Rasa Tabula, rather than be blotted over with such a senseless Inscription; A Blank Page exceeds a Treatise, that passes such Scurrilities as thses upon a Learned Doctor, for Wit and Reflection; A Rasa Tabula of a clean Sheet of Paper, has proved a Compliment to a certain Lord, when it was cry'd about as one of his Speeches, and it might have made as good a Treatise for the Defender.
(pp. 7-9)",,10737,•A Tabula Inscripta.,"""[T]ill I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity to the Doctor, that he went a Tabula Inscripta to the University, and that this was discernible even on the Reverse of him, in very plain [end page 8] and legible Characters""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:35:14 UTC,Of Dr. W. Tind--
4162,"","Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there; Now Human Knowledge was to be had there; Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all means to be sent up in all hast to the University, and might I make no doubt be immediately Matriculated at the Labritory, without paying any Fees. Mr. Lock has not been pleased to Date the Age and Duration of this sort of Creatures: Neither does he assure us, whither the First Notion engraved on the Mental Surface, be a Rawhead, a Spoon, Pap, Thunder, of an Old Woman; There are Questionless, some [end page 7] Accidents and Disasters waiting round a Cradle, as also a Testacious and Impenitrable Species of Skulls, peculiar to some Constitutions, that may for a long time secure the well temper'd Brain from a too forward and hasty Impression; but whither this is commonly the Case of those who are thought proper to be sent to the University, is I think not yet agreed upon by Philosophers; Certain it is, that there is all the Reason in the World to believe, that the Doctor was in quite other Circumstances upon his Removal from one Nursery to t'other; For my own part (and I love to measure the Excellency of others by my own Imperfections) long before I arrived at Oxford, I was so often Complemented with the worthy Titles of, Idle Rogue, Arch Bastard, Unlucky Dog, and sometimes Rebel, Truant, and Sawcebox, among the Tory Criticks: that I soon found I was no Rasa Tabula; I see it in his Looks, says one, I read it in his Face, says another; Now they must be strange Readers indeed, who can see and peruse, where there's nothing written or inscribed; Whither the Doctor did not exceed me in Literature, has been abundantly made out to the World; and till I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity to the Doctor, that he went a Tabula Inscripta to the University, and that this was discernible even on the Reverse of him, in very plain [end page 8] and legible Characters. What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square Rasa Tabula of a Stone under the Education of a Country Cutter, speak sense enough to entitle it to a Place in a Church-yard: and therefore I see no Reason, why a Human Rasa Tabula, with a Country Education, should not deserve a Place in a Church and make a very good Catholick. I would have this Gentleman, the Defender, handsomly fall back into the primitive natural State of an uneducated Rasa Tabula, rather than be blotted over with such a senseless Inscription; A Blank Page exceeds a Treatise, that passes such Scurrilities as thses upon a Learned Doctor, for Wit and Reflection; A Rasa Tabula of a clean Sheet of Paper, has proved a Compliment to a certain Lord, when it was cry'd about as one of his Speeches, and it might have made as good a Treatise for the Defender.
(pp. 7-9)",,10738,"","""What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square Rasa Tabula of a Stone under the Education of a Country Cutter, speak sense enough to entitle it to a Place in a Church-yard: and therefore I see no Reason, why a Human Rasa Tabula, with a Country Education, should not deserve a Place in a Church and make a very good Catholick.""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:35:14 UTC,Of Dr. W. Tind--
4267,Blank Slate,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-09 00:00:00 UTC,"With ordinary minds, such, as much the greatest part of the World are, 'tis the Sutableness, not the Evidence of a Truth, that makes it to be assented to. And it is seldom, that any thing practically convinces a Man, that does not please him first. If you would be sure of him, you must inform, and gratifie him too. But now, Impartiality strips the mind of prejudice and passion, keeps it tight and even from the Byass of Interest and Desire; and so presents it like a Rasa Tabula equally disposed to the Reception of all Truth. So that the Soul lies prepared, and open to entertain it; and prepossessed with Nothing that can oppose, or thrust it out. For where Diligence opens the Door of the Understanding, and Impartiality keeps it, Truth is sure to find both an Entrance and a Welcome too.
(pp. 305-6)",,11116,"•South avails himself of the Pyrrhonist version of the Tabula Rasa metaphor. These sermons appear in multiple editions in the c18.
• ""right and even"" in later versions, ""tight and even"" in EEBO-TCP.","""But now, Impartiality strips the Mind of Prejudice and Passion, keeps it right and even from the Byass of Interest and Desire, and so presents it like a Rasa Tabula, equally disposed to the Reception of all Truth.""",Writing,2014-10-05 19:37:42 UTC,""
7338,"","Reading; found again searching ""mind"" in Project Gutenberg e-text. ",2013-03-22 15:17:00 UTC,"There is another Set of Men that I must likewise lay a Claim to, whom I have lately called the Blanks of Society, as being altogether unfurnish'd with Ideas, till the Business and Conversation of the Day has supplied them. I have often considered these poor Souls with an Eye of great Commiseration, when I have heard them asking the first Man they have met with, whether there was any News stirring? and by that Means gathering together Materials for thinking. These needy Persons do not know what to talk of, till about twelve a Clock in the Morning; for by that Time they are pretty good Judges of the Weather, know which Way the Wind sits, and whether the Dutch Mail be come in. As they lie at the Mercy of the first Man they meet, and are grave or impertinent all the Day long, according to the Notions which they have imbibed in the Morning, I would earnestly entreat them not to stir out of their Chambers till they have read this Paper, and do promise them that I will daily instil into them such sound and wholesome Sentiments, as shall have a good Effect on their Conversation for the ensuing twelve Hours.
(I, 46)",,19987,"","""There is another Set of Men that I must likewise lay a Claim to, whom I have lately called the Blanks of Society, as being altogether unfurnish'd with Ideas.""",Writing,2013-03-22 15:17:00 UTC,""
7453,"","Searching ""mind"" in Project Gutenberg e-text.
",2013-06-17 17:43:33 UTC,"Aristotle tells us that the World is a Copy or Transcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of the first Being, and that those Ideas, which are in the Mind of Man, are a Transcript of the World: To this we may add, that Words are the Transcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of Man, and that Writing or Printing are the Transcript of words. As the Supreme Being has expressed, and as it were printed his Ideas in the Creation, Men express their Ideas in Books, which by this great Invention of these latter Ages may last as long as the Sun and Moon, and perish only in the general Wreck of Nature. Thus Cowley in his Poem on the Resurrection, mentioning the Destruction of the Universe, has those admirable Lines.
Now all the wide extended Sky,
And all th' harmonious Worlds on high,
And Virgil's sacred Work shall die.",,20866,INTEREST.,"""Aristotle tells us that the World is a Copy or Transcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of the first Being, and that those Ideas, which are in the Mind of Man, are a Transcript of the World: To this we may add, that Words are the Transcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of Man, and that Writing or Printing are the Transcript of words.""",Writing,2013-06-17 17:43:33 UTC,""
7740,"",Searching in EEBO-TCP,2013-10-25 21:35:03 UTC,"1. For the Understanding Speculative. There are some general Maximes and Notions in the mind of Man, which are the rules of Discourse, and the basis of all Philosophy. As that the same thing cannot at the same time be, and not be. That the Whole is bigger then a Part. That two Proportions equal to a third, must also be equal to one another. Aristotle indeed affirms the Mind to be at first a meer Rasa tabula; and that these Notions are not ingenite, and imprinted by the finger of Nature, but by the latter and more languid impressions of sense; being onely the Reports of observation, and the Result of so many repeated Experiments.
But to this I answer two things. [...]
(pp. 10-11)",,23041,"","""Aristotle indeed affirms the Mind to be at first a meer Rasa tabula; and that these Notions are not ingenite, and imprinted by the finger of Nature, but by the latter and more languid impressions of sense; being onely the Reports of observation, and the Result of so many repeated Experiments.""",Writing,2013-10-25 21:35:03 UTC,""