Date: 1746, 1749

"Such Rancour this, of such a poisonous Vein, / As never, never, shall my Paper stain: / Much less infect my Heart"

— Francis, Philip (1708-1773)

Date: 1747

"Now the Purpose for which [Lestrange] principally intended his Book, as in his Preface he spends a great many Words to inform us, was for the Use and Instruction of Children; who being, as it were, a mere rasa tabula, or blank Paper, are ready indifferently for any Opinion, good or bad, taking a...

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"What sort of Children therefore are the Blank Paper, upon which such Morality as this ought to be written?"

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"Let the Children of Italy, France, Spain, and the rest of the Popish Countries, furnish him with Blank Paper for Principles, of which free-born Britons are not capable."

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: April 1750, 1791

"Hail, wond'rous Being, who in pow'r supreme / Exists from everlasting, whose great Name / Deep in the human heart, and every atom, / The Air, the Earth or azure Main contains, / In undecypher'd characters is wrote."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: Tuesday, August 7, 1750

"But the images which memory presents are of a stubborn and untractable nature, the objects of remembrance have already existed, and left their signature behind them impressed upon the mind, so as to defy all attempts of rasure or of change."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1750

"The Soul is a Tabula rasa, and gets all it knows thro' the Body; so there is no Law implanted in the Soul."

— Bate, Julius (1711-1771)

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: February 4, 1752

"My parents, though otherwise not great philosophers, knew the force of early education, and took care that the blank of my understanding should be filled with impressions of the value of money."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)