"Coming, as most boys do, a rasa tabula to the university, and believing (his country education teaching him no better) that all human and divine knowledge was to be had there, he quickly fell into the then prevailing notions of the high and independent powers of the clergy."
— Author Unknown
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Osborne, J. Whiston and B. White, W. Strahan, T. Payne, W. Owen, W. Johnston, S. Crowder, B. Law, T. Field, T. Durham, J. Robson, R. Goadby, and E. Baker
Date
1761-1762
Metaphor
"Coming, as most boys do, a rasa tabula to the university, and believing (his country education teaching him no better) that all human and divine knowledge was to be had there, he quickly fell into the then prevailing notions of the high and independent powers of the clergy."
Metaphor in Context
[...] It will easily be imagined that, in the course of this controversy, dr. Tindal's antagonists would object to him his variableness and mutability in matters of religion, and insult him not a little upon his first apostatising to the church of Rome, upon the prospect of a national conversion to popery, and then, at the revolution, reverting to protestantism. They did so, and the reply he made to them is as follows: "Coming, as most boys do, a rasa tabula to the university, and believing (his country education teaching him no better) that all human and divine knowledge was to be had there, he quickly fell into the then prevailing notions of the high and independent powers of the clergy, and meeting with none, during his long stay there, who questioned the truth of them, they by degrees became so fixed and riveted in him, that he no more doubted of them than of his won being; and he perceived not the consequences of them till the Roman emissaries (who were busy in making proselytes in the university in king James's time, and knew how to turn the weapons of high church against them) caused him to see, that, upon these notions, a separation from the church of Rome could not be justified, and that they, who pretended to answer them as to those points, did only shuffle, or talk backward and forward. [...]
(pp 187-8)
(pp 187-8)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "tabula rasa" in ECCO
Citation
Eleven volumes: vols. 7-11 are dated 1762. At least 4 entries in the ESTC (1761, 1767, 1784, 1795, 1798).
See A New and General Biographical Dictionary; Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts of Time to the Present Period. Wherein Their Remarkable Actions or Sufferings, Their Virtues, Parts, and Learning, Are Accurately Displayed; With a Catalogue of Their Literary Productions. (London: Printed for T. Osborne, J. Whiston and B. White, W. Strahan, T. Payne, W. Owen, W. Johnston, S. Crowder, B. Law, T. Field, T. Durham, J. Robson, R. Goadby, and E. Baker, 1761). <Link to ESTC>
See A New and General Biographical Dictionary; Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts of Time to the Present Period. Wherein Their Remarkable Actions or Sufferings, Their Virtues, Parts, and Learning, Are Accurately Displayed; With a Catalogue of Their Literary Productions. (London: Printed for T. Osborne, J. Whiston and B. White, W. Strahan, T. Payne, W. Owen, W. Johnston, S. Crowder, B. Law, T. Field, T. Durham, J. Robson, R. Goadby, and E. Baker, 1761). <Link to ESTC>
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
10/12/2006
