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"For were that mind, what some suppose, a mere tabula rasa upon its first coming into the world, a pure and perfect blank, without one single impression; who can deny that it would be right, that it would be humane and wise, to make, in the earliest moments, those impressions upon it, which long and careful experience hath proved to be just in themselves, and advantageous in their consequences?"

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Author

Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Work Title

Sermons to young men. In three volumes. By William Dodd

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for J. Knox, and T. Cadell

Date

1771

Metaphor

"For were that mind, what some suppose, a mere tabula rasa upon its first coming into the world, a pure and perfect blank, without one single impression; who can deny that it would be right, that it would be humane and wise, to make, in the earliest moments, those impressions upon it, which long and careful experience hath proved to be just in themselves, and advantageous in their consequences?"

Metaphor in Context

[...] The wise Man recommends that children should be accustomed to the yoke from their infancy; and St. Paul frequently exhorts parents to teach and admonish their children:--a practice unquestionably right, upon every idea of the human mind. For were that mind, what some suppose, a mere tabula rasa upon its first coming into the world, a pure and perfect blank, without one single impression; who can deny that it would be right, that it would be humane and wise, to make, in the earliest moments, those impressions upon it, which long and careful experience hath proved to be just in themselves, and advantageous in their consequences?

But when we are taught from divine revelation that this ideas of the soul is groundless; when we are assured from thence, that the human mind is corrupt and prone to evil, a truth to which we ourselves must daily bear [end page 6] ample testimony: it becomes, in this view, a duty of the highest importance; nay, I will add, of the tenderest humanity, early to supply the infant mind with such maxims, as may prove a sufficient bias to the corruption of its nature, and enable it, through divine grace, to continue steadfast in the practice of virtue.
(pp. 6-7)