"It is a charte blanche, ready for receiving the inscriptions of sense; yet it behoves us carefully to observe, that it differs from a rasa tabula or a sheet of clean paper, in the following respect, that you may write on clean paper; that sugar is bitter, wormwood sweet, fire and frost in every degree pleasing and [sufferable?]; that compassion and gratitude are base; treachery, falshood, and envy noble; and that contempt is indifferent to us: Yet no human art or industry are able to make those impression on the mind."
— Usher, James (1720-1771)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Davies
Date
1771
Metaphor
"It is a charte blanche, ready for receiving the inscriptions of sense; yet it behoves us carefully to observe, that it differs from a rasa tabula or a sheet of clean paper, in the following respect, that you may write on clean paper; that sugar is bitter, wormwood sweet, fire and frost in every degree pleasing and [sufferable?]; that compassion and gratitude are base; treachery, falshood, and envy noble; and that contempt is indifferent to us: Yet no human art or industry are able to make those impression on the mind."
Metaphor in Context
The infant mind at coming to the world, is a meer rasa tabula, destitute of all ideas and materials of reflection.It is a charte blanche, ready for receiving the inscriptions of sense; yet it behoves us carefully to observe, that it differs from a rasa tabula or a sheet of clean paper, in the following respect, that you may write on clean paper; that sugar is bitter, wormwood sweet, fire and frost in every degree pleasing and [sufferable?]; that compassion and gratitude are base; treachery, falshood, and envy noble; and that contempt is indifferent to us: Yet no human [end page 57] art or industry are able to make those impression on the mind: in respect to them, the mind discovers not a passive capacity, but it resists them with the force of fate: the signification of the words may indeed be altered; but when we take our attention off from the words, and place it on the ideas, I mean, that no human power is able to impress the ideas I speak of, on the mind of man, in the order and relation I write them. The infant mind then is justly compared to a sheet of clean paper, in being pure of ideas, and susceptible of a vast variety; but it cannot be compared to a sheet of clean paper in this other respect, that prior to the impression, they are both equally indifferent to the inscription they are to bear. For the human mind hath several predetermined tastes and sentiments, which arise from a source that lies beyond experience; custom, or choice; that with absolute, [end page 58] authority decides the good and bad of the ideas we receive.
(pp. 56-9)
(pp. 56-9)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "tabula rasa" in ECCO
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1771).
Ussher, James. An Introduction to the Theory of the Human Mind. By J. U. Author of Clio. (London: Printed for T. Davies, 1771).
Ussher, James. An Introduction to the Theory of the Human Mind. By J. U. Author of Clio. (London: Printed for T. Davies, 1771).
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
10/13/2006
