Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

A Dialogue Between Timothy and Philatheus

London

Printed for Bernard Lintott

1711

"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."

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)

Writing::Tabula Rasa

Searching "tabula rasa" in ECCO

William Oldisworth, A Dialogue Between Timothy and Philatheus. In Which the Principles and Projects of a Late Whimsical Book, Intituled, (the Rights of the Christian Church, &C.) Are Fairly Stated, and Answered in Their Kind, 3 vols (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1709-11). <Link to ECCO>

10/09/2006