Anonymous

An Earnest Appeal to Passionate People

London

Printed for W. Owen

1748

The "Author of our Being, when he breathers into us the Breath of Life, and speaks us into Existence, leaves our Minds a pure Tabula rasa capable of any Impression, and free from all innate Prepossessions in favour of Vice or vicious Habits, but more susceptible from its own nature of virtuous and social Affections"

The Human Mind, the pure Emanation of the Divinity, can never be inherently possessed of those Affections, which are the Origin of moral Evil; the Author of our Being, when he breathers into us the Breath of Life, and speaks us into Existence, leaves our Minds a pure Tabula rasa capable of any Impression, and free from all innate Prepossessions in favour of Vice or vicious Habits, but more susceptible from its own nature of virtuous and social Affections. The Soul is created in a State of moral Rectitude, but receives its vicious Tinctures from the Body, and is warped into its perverse and crooked Disposition by [end page 9] the Influence of the Senses. Consequently, whenever a Man attempts to subdue his Passions, and to put them under the regular Government of their natural sovereign Reason, the irrational Part must submit to the rational, the Brute must yield to the Man, and the Soul in the Event gain the Superiority over every Passion or Appetite, however deeply rooted in the Mind.
(pp. 9-10)

Writing::Tabula Rasa

Searching "tabula rasa" in ECCO

2 entries in ESTC (1748).

An Earnest Appeal to Passionate People: Wherein the Rise, Progress, and Consequences of That Unhappy Disposition of Mind Are Fully Displayed; ... to Which Is Added, an Essay on Envy, Malice, and Detraction, 2nd edition (London: Printed for W. Owen, 1748).

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10/11/2006