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Date: 1766

"YOU see already, my dear patron, by the date of my letter, that I am arrived at the place of my destination; but you cannot see all the charms which I find in it; to do this, you should be acquainted with the situation, and be able to read my heart. You ought, however, to read at least those of ...

— Hume, David (1711-1776); with Rousseau, d'Alembert, and Walpole

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Date: 1767

"He is now reduced to the greatest want and beggary, he is become a meer tabula rasa, a sheet of blank paper, a page of perfect inanity."

— Campbell, Archibald (bap. 1724, d. 1780)

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Date: 1769

"Vain therefore, and entirely to be rejected, is that Principle published to the World, by a celebrated Philosopher of the last Century, namely, that the Soul in its first created State, has nothing in it, but is a mere Rasa Tabula, or blank Paper."

— Law, William (1686-1761)

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Date: 1769

"Of the two great Ordinances of Christianity, Baptism and the LORD's Supper, how does the former imprint upon the rasa Tabula of our infant Minds the most significant Emblems of Purity and Holiness, and lay the strongest Obligations upon us to keep ourselves from those Pollutions which def...

— Crossman, Henry (1711-1792)

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Date: 1769

"The learned and ingenious Brown, in his Procedure of the Understanding, observes that 'common sense and Reason, to them who will use them in a plain Way, make it evident that we have no immediate or direct Idea or Perception of Sprit, or any of its Operations, as we have of Body and its Qualitie...

— Jackson, W., of Lichfield Close (fl. 1769)

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Date: 1770

"It is a favourite maxim with Mr LOCKE, as it was with some ancient philosophers, that the human soul, previous to education, is like a piece of white paper, or tabula rasa, and this simile, harmless as it may appear, betrays our great modern into several important mistakes."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

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Date: 1770

"That the mind of man, previous to the information of the senses, is a tabula rasa, a blank, without ideas, without knowledge, is a doctrine too well supported by this great master of reason to suffer a shock."

— Baker, William (1742-1785)

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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)

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Date: 1771

"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, whic...

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

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Date: 1771

"The infant mind at coming to the world, is a meer rasa tabula, destitute of all ideas and materials of reflection."

— Usher, James (1720-1771)

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