Date: 1794

"Emily observed these written characters of his thoughts with deep interest, and not without some degree of awe, when she considered that she was entirely in his power; but forbore even to hint her fears, or her observations, to Madame Montoni, who discerned nothing in her husband, at these times...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1795

"Like souls unborn and unequipp'd, / A blank, of many a passion stripp'd."

— Stevenson, John Hall (1717-1785)

Date: 1795

"I'm only a living volume, and if you will peruse my thoughts, you'll read of nothing but yourself --you are engraved here in indelible letters"

— Reynolds, Frederick (1764-1841)

Date: 1795

"A soft sponginess of character that will easily acquire any hue, or any stain; a tabula rasa of intellect; a spirit invulnerable to insult; that (for example) after vain endeavors to disunite and discourage the Catholics of Ireland, could condescend to [end page 2] truck and chaffer, for the off...

— Drennan, William (1754-1820)

Date: 1795

"The infant mind has been compared to a tabula rasa, or sheet of clean paper: but there is this essential difference, as hath been well observed, between the opposite objects of comparison they are not both equally Indifferent to the inscription which they are to bear."

— Napleton, John (1738/9-1817)

Date: 1796

"Oh! it was not a diamond which engraved that image on my heart"

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796

"Ay: ay: this is none of your modern paper skull'd authors--old Geoffery's head is sound"

— Reynolds, Frederick (1764-1841)

Date: 1796

"He guarded my mind from imbibing any religious principles at all, under the notion of preserving it to maturity, like a rasa tabula, free from all prejudices."

— Anonymous

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"The action of the pen will doubtless imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the waste of time; and I must agree with Dr. Johnson, (Idler, No. 74.) 'that what is twice read, is commonly better remember...

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1796

"Edgar, touched by a comparison to the person he most honoured, gratefully looked his acknowledgment; and all displeasure at her flight, even from Thomson's scene of conjugal felicity, was erased from his mind."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)