Date: December 29, 1759

"In childhood, while our minds are yet unoccupied, religion is impressed upon them, and the first years of almost all who have been well educated are passed in a regular discharge of the duties of piety."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: November, 1762; 1797

"This reflection was so strongly impressed upon my mind, that T'was able to employ the succeeding morning in setting down the particulars of a dream occasioned by it."

— Thornton, Bonnell (1725-1768)

Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)

"An idea attended with great pleasure or pain makes a deep impression on the memory, i. e. a deep trace on the brain, the spirits being then violently impelled."

— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)

Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)

"We remember that best in the morning, which we learnt just before we went to sleep: because, say the Cartesians, the traces made then are not apt to be effaced by the motions of the spirits, as they would, if new objects of sensation had presented themselves; and during this interval, t...

— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)

Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)

"Sensible ideas gradually decay in the memory if they be not refreshed by new sensations; the traces perhaps wearing out: yet they may last many years."

— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)

Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)

"The analogy upon this hypothesis between sensation and memory, the one arising from impressions made on the brain, the other depending on traces continued there."

— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)

Date: 1765

"And in this I am warranted by the example of ancient Rome; where, as Cicero informs us, the very boys were obliged to learn the twelve tables by heart, as a carmen necessarium or indispensable lesson, to imprint on their tender minds an early knowledge of the laws and constitution of their count...

— Blackstone, William (1723-1780)

Date: 1771

"As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination."

— Harris, James (1709-1780)

Date: December 10, 1774; 1775

"That disposition, which is so strong in children, still continues with us, of catching involuntarily the general air, and manner, of those with whom we are most conversant; with this difference only, that a young mind is naturally pliable and imitative; but in a more advanced state it grows rigi...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1774

"The treaty part you must chiefly acquire by reading the treaties themselves, and the histories and memoirs relative to them; not but that inquiries and conversations upon those treaties will help you greatly, and imprint them better in your mind."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)