Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711

"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: Saturday, July 16, to Tuesday, July 19, 1709

"Mars, Pallas, Bacchus, and Hercules, have each of them furnished very good similes in their time, and made, doubtless, a greater impression on the mind of a heathen, than they have on that of a modern reader."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Saturday, July 16, to Tuesday, July 19, 1709

"Mars, Pallas, Bacchus, and Hercules, have each of them furnished very good similes in their time, and made, doubtless, a greater impression on the mind of a heathen, than they have on that of a modern reader."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Thursd. Nov. 24 to Saturd. Nov. 26. 1709

"I Have been this Evening recollecting what Passages (since I could first think) have left the strongest Impressions upon my Mind; and after strict Enquiry, I am convinced, that the Impulses I have received from Theatrical Representations, have had a greater Effect, than otherwise would have been...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1710, 1734

"But neither can this be said; for though we give the materialists their external bodies, they by their own confession are never the nearer knowing how our ideas are produced: since they own themselves unable to comprehend in what manner body can act upon spirit, or how it is possible it should i...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: From Saturd. Febr. 25. to Tuesd. Febr. 28. 1710

"But indeed I must do my Female Readers the Justice to own, that their tender Hearts are much more susceptible of good Impressions, than the Minds of the other Sex."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: From Saturday June 3. to Tuesday June 6. 1710

"The Mind in Infancy is, methinks, like the Body in Embrio, and receives Impressions so forcible, that they are as hard to be removed by Reason, as any Mark with which a Child is born is to be taken away by any future Application."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Friday, August 1711

"This was a childish Amusement when I was carried away with outward Appearance, but you make a deeper Impression, and affect the secret Springs of the Mind; you charm the Fancy, sooth the Passions, and insensibly lead the Reader to that Sweetness of Temper that you so well describe; you rouse Gen...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Thursday, August 9, 1711

"Where Sovereigns have it [love of glory] by Impressions received from Education only, it creates an Ambitious rather than a Noble Mind; where it is the natural Bent of the Prince's Inclination, it prompts him to the Pursuit of Things truly Glorious."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, September 12, 1711

"So very dreadful had he made himself to me, that altho' it is above twenty Years since I felt his heavy Hand, yet still once a Month at least I dream of him, so strong an Impression did he make on my Mind."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)