Date: 1736, 1737, 1734-1741

"We must examine every thing, as if we were a tabula rasa."

— Bayle, Pierre (1647-1706); Anonymous

Date: [1738], 1758

"Consult your mind, consult your glass, / Each charm of sense and youth; / Then own, who changes is an ass, / Nor wonder at my truth."

— Anonymous

Date: 1741

"If the Mind be as it were a rasa tabula in respect of the one, the same Reasons make it extremely probable that she must be so in respect of the other likewise"

— Anonymous

Date: 1742

"But if the Soul was like a Tabula Rasa, or a fair Sheet of Paper, (as Mr L -- says) it would be no more capable of having Knowledge of any kind excited in it, than a Sheet of Paper can have Knowledge excited in it."

— Anonymous

Date: 1744

"And, as the Mind cannot long continue a Tabula rasa, a meer Blank, but some Images will be impress'd upon it, we ought therefore to form good Habits and Propensities to Virtue."

— Anonymous

Date: 1745

"These were Virtues unknown to him, who like the Ungrateful lessen'd the Obligations he had to her, by viewing his own Merit in the flattering Glass, his Fancy held before him. This false Mirror soon turn'd the Scale in his Favour, attributing her Choice of him to his own good Sense, which had Ar...

— Anonymous

Date: 1745

"The Idea of her lov'd Orsino presented itself to her distracted Imagination like an incens'd Lover to demand an Account of her Conduct: Which made such an Impression on her Mind, that she could scarce find Amusements for a few Hours, in all the Pleasures that surrounded her."

— Anonymous

Date: 1748

"There is nothing more certain, that that there are two Kinds of Conviction, one flowing from a sudden and violent breaking-in of Truth, when the Understanding is as it were taken by Storm, and a Man's whole System of Thinking is changed in an Instant: the other a gradual, gentle, and slow steali...

— Anonymous; [Lyttleton]

Date: 1748

"Our LORD uses both Methods at once, in order to fit his Disciples for their Duty, to open their Eyes, to extend their Views, to extirpate Prejudices, to make every Man's Mind a rasa Tabula, or as his own Phrase is, to make plain the Ways of the LORD."

— Anonymous; [Lyttleton]

Date: 1748

"This was the true, the sole, the genuine Way of proceeding; for while carnal Desires, and such an over-weening Passion for Riches remained, their Breasts were barren Grounds, and thereby most unfit to receive the Seed of Divine Truths."

— Anonymous; [Lyttleton]