Date: 1705

"What are ye, but a Field, or plot of ground, to be manured and cultivated for God?"

— Flavell, John (bap. 1630, d. 1691)

Date: 1707

"Lest any understand what I have said a few Pages hence as if I wholly denied common Innate Principles, observe, That it is only actual Connate Knowledge that I deny, and in respect to which I say that the Soul is rasa tabula; but I confess a Natural Passive power for the knowing of them a...

— Baxter, Richard (1615-1691)

Date: Jan 7 1712/13

"The Heart must be Tabula Rasa, white Paper to his Pen, soft Wax to his Seal: Let him write upon me what he pleaseth, and make what Impressions he pleaseth upon me."

— Henry, Matthew (1662-1714)

Date: 1729

"Secondly, 'Tis just matter of wonder & astonishment that ever one spark of faith was kindled in such an heart as thine is; [end page 124] an heart which had no predisposition or inclination in the least to believe; yea, it was not rasa tabula, like clean paper, void of any impression of f...

— Flavell, John (bap. 1630, d. 1691)

Date: 1745

"Truth is an amiable and delightful Object to the Eye of the Mind, but it is not easily apprehended by the Bulk of Mankind; especially if it be remote from common Observation, or abstracted from sensible Experience."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1745

"The Ideas must be cloathed in a bodily Form, to make it visible and palpable to the gross Understanding."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1745

"We are told by Philosophers, of no small Note, that the Mind is, at first, a kind of Tabula rasa, or like a Piece of blank Paper, that it bears no original Inscriptions, when we come into the World,--that we owe all the Characters afterwards drawn upon it, to the Impressions made upon our Senses...

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1745

"As little would I agree with those Philosophers Constant mentioned, that the Mind resembles a Leaf of white Paper."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1745

"I would rather compare it [the mind] to a Seed, which contains all the Stamina of the future Plant, and all those Principles of Perfection, to which it aspires in its After-growth, and regularly arrives by gradual Stages, unless it is obstructed in its Progress by external Violence."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1745

"And, in my Opinion, we have as much need of the Hand of Culture to call forth our latent Powers, to direct their Exercise; in fine, to shape and polish us into Men, as the unformed Block has of the Craver or Statuary's Skill, to draw it out of that rude State, into the Form and Proportions of a ...

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)