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Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711

"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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Date: 1707

"See, see, he smiles amidst his Trance, / And shakes a visionary Lance, / His Brain is fill'd with loud Alarms, / Shouting Armies, clashing Arms, / The softer Prints of Love deface; / And Trumpets sound in ev'ry Trace."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

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Date: 1708

"So that Spirit which comes by the Command of God, do's at all times act upon all Creatures, in some of which notwithstanding, there appears no Impression of it, but the reason of that is, because of their Incapacity into whom it is infus'd; of which kind are things inanimate which are fitly repr...

— Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

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Date: 1709

"Their Minds, just molded, the Impression took"

— Gould, Robert (b. 1660?, d. in or before 1709)

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Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"Reflection is the last and greatest Bliss: / When turning backwards with inverted Eyes, / The Soul it self and all its Charms, surveys, / The deep Impressions of Coelestial Grace / And Image of the Godhead."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

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Date: Friday, August 1711

"This was a childish Amusement when I was carried away with outward Appearance, but you make a deeper Impression, and affect the secret Springs of the Mind; you charm the Fancy, sooth the Passions, and insensibly lead the Reader to that Sweetness of Temper that you so well describe; you rouse Gen...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

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Date: Thursday, August 9, 1711

"Where Sovereigns have it [love of glory] by Impressions received from Education only, it creates an Ambitious rather than a Noble Mind; where it is the natural Bent of the Prince's Inclination, it prompts him to the Pursuit of Things truly Glorious."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

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Date: 1713, 1734

"And that outward objects by the different impressions they make on the organs of sense, communicate certain vibrative motions to the nerves; and these being filled with spirits, propagate them to the brain or seat of the soul, which according to the various impressions or traces thereby made in ...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

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Date: 1713

"But just arriv'd--Absence, Mrs. Busie, has not been able to deface the Impressions of Love,--and still the Lady Myrtilla reigns in my Bosom, haunts my waking Thoughts, and is ever present in my Dreams."

— Gay, John (1685-1732)

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Date: Jan 7 1712/13

"The Heart must be Tabula Rasa, white Paper to his Pen, soft Wax to his Seal: Let him write upon me what he pleaseth, and make what Impressions he pleaseth upon me."

— Henry, Matthew (1662-1714)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.