Date: 1666

"The composition of all poems is or ought to be of wit, and wit in the poet, or wit writing (if you will give me leave to use a school distinction), is no other than the faculty of imagination in the writer, which, like a nimble spaniel, beats over and ranges through the field of memory, till it ...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1666

Elocution is " that art of clothing and adorning that thought so found and varied, in apt, significant, and sounding word."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1737

"I say, I see it was so evenly carried without Prejudice, (whether it were a true Accusation of the one part, or a Practice of a false Accusation on the other) as shewed plainly that his majesty's Judgment was tanquam tabula rasa, as a clean Pair of tables, and his Ear tanquam janua aperta, as a ...

— Holles, John, Earl of Clare (ca. 1565-1637)

Date: 1756

"This heart is become a mere rasa tabula; you must help it to the [GREEK CHARACTERS], you must lay in it the foundation of natural religion, (i.e. "the dictates of common sense, for natural religion, according to Mr. H. is nothing else,) if you would raise the superstr...

— Patten, Thomas (1714-1790)