Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

Natural "Characters engraven on the Mind" must needs be visible by themselves by their own light

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1739

"In reason's light, eternal word, exprest, / Stamp'd with his image in the creature's breast"

— Nugent, Robert [or Craggs] (1702-1788)

Date: 1817

"Look on your mind--it is the book of fate-- / Ah! it is dark with many a blazoned name / Of misery--all are mirrors of the same"

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Date: 1840

"But then, it is open to some one else to follow great authorities and call the mind a sheet of white paper or a mirror, in which case one's knowledge of the digestive process becomes quite irrelevant."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)