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"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."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Author

Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Work Title

A Dialogue Between Timothy and Philatheus

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for Bernard Lintott

Date

1711

Metaphor

"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."

Metaphor in Context

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)