Date: 1711

"The Mind of Man is allowed to be a Rasa Tabula, which in the Old Account of things, alludes to those Tablets of Wax, on which the Ancients wrote and engross'd all their Business; But in a Modern Translation, this can signify nothing else, but a fair Sheet of Paper: over which we must suppose the...

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"From this Account it is plain, that the Desire of Being in Print, is an Idea, if not Unnate, yet one of the first that gets into our Minds: whence all Men express a Natural Propensity and Inclination, to be Authors"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all...

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"[T]ill I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity...

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: Monday, September 10, 1711

"Aristotle tells us that the World is a Copy or Transcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of the first Being, and that those Ideas, which are in the Mind of Man, are a Transcript of the World: To this we may add, that Words are the Transcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of Man, and...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, March 12, 1711

"There is another Set of Men that I must likewise lay a Claim to, whom I have lately called the Blanks of Society, as being altogether unfurnish'd with Ideas."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"And here the Mind receives a great deal of Satisfaction, and has two of its Faculties gratified at the same time, while the Fancy is busy in copying after the Understanding, and transcribing Ideas out of the Intellectual World into the Material."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)