"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."
— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)
Metaphor
"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."
Metaphor in Context
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)
