Date: 1691

"So innocent is the Soul of Kainophilus, so like fair white Paper, wherein you may presently see the least blot or speck of dirt that happens to fall upon it."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Who has so many English Dictionaries in his Study, and another in his Head bigger than all together (and yet there's still room to spare both for Brains and Projects) Does not he?--nay--now you ruffle his smooth Soul, alter his fair Body, and discompose him all over."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1705

"In Characters of Malice, Pride, and Fraud, / Stamp'd on his Mind, my Image I applaud."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1705

" In Characters of Malice, Pride, and Fraud, / Stamp'd on his Mind, my Image I applaud."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"The ready Phantomes at her Nod advance, / And form the busie Intellectual Dance: / While her fair Scenes to vary, or supply, / She singles out fit Images, that lye / In Memory's Records, which faithful hold / Objects immense in secret Marks inroll'd, / The sleeping Forms at her Command awake, / ...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: February 1738

One may be " In State most desponding, by the Light of a Taper, / With Thoughts dull and dark as my Wax, or my Paper"

— Tickell, Thomas (1685-1740)

Date: 1741, 1742, 1755

"For it was Aristotle's opinion, who compared the soul to a 'rasa tabula', that human sensations and reflections were passions: These therefore are what he finely calls, the 'passive intelligent'; which, he says, shall cease, or is corruptible."

— Warburton, William (1698-1779)

Date: 1752

"Yet hold me near Thee; set me as a Seal, / Deep on thy dear dear Heart!"

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1752

"Go, Christian! with th' endearing Pledges seal'd / Fresh on thy Soul, resembling Pattern show/ How Jesus liv'd"

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1757

"And whatever any talk of (the rasa tabula,) an indifferency by nature, to virtue or vice: never could I find any such thing; but all men inclined the wrong way: and abundance of work, by discipline, and the grace of God, to make any one better than the rest."

— Jenks, Benjamin (bap. 1648, d. 1724)