Date: 1730

"The former of these, our Free-thinkers, out of their singular wisdom, and benevolence to makind, endeavour to erase from the minds of men."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1731

"And first of all, that the Soul is not a meer Rasa Tabula, a naked and Passive Thing, which has no innate Furniture or Activity its own, nor any thing at all in it, but what was impressed on it from without."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"The Mind is a meer tabula rasa, originally without any Impression, Stamp or Character whatsoever, (unless we'll suppose it the same with Brutes) but capable of any, and most apt to receive the first that offers, till external Objects furnish it with distinct Ideas, and from thence ...

— Anonymous

Date: 1731-2

"It is a kind of annihilation to have our minds made a tabula rasa, and to date our existence from a new period."

— Jortin, John (1698-1770)

Date: 1731

"That which wholly looks abroad outward upon its Object, is not one with that which it perceives, but is at a distance from it, and therefore cannot Know and Comprehend it; but Knowledge and Intellection doth not meerly look out upon a thing at distance, but makes an Inward Reflection upon the th...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"For as the Mind of God, which is the Archetypal Intellect, is that whereby he always actually comprehends himself, and his own Fecundity, or the Extent of his own Infinite Goodness and Power; that is, the Possibility of all things; So all Created Intellects being being certain Ectypal Models, or...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"For the Man hath certain Moral Anticipations and Signatures stamped inwardly upon his Soul, which makes him presently take Notice of whatsoever symbolizes with it in Corporeal Things; but the Brute hath none."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Now I observe that it is so far from being true, that all our Objective Cogitations or Ideas are Corporeal Effluxes or Radiations from Corporeal Things without, or impressed upon the Soul from them in a gross Corporeal Manner, as a Signature or Stamp is imprinted by a Seal upon a piece of Wax or...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Just in the same manner Nature doth as it were talk to us in the Outward Objects of Sense, and import Various Sentiments, Ideas, Phantasms, and Cogitations, not by stamping or impressing them passively upon the Soul from without, but only by certain Local Motions from them, as it were dumb Signs...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But the Soul, as by a certain secret Instinct, and as it were by Compact, understanding Nature's Language, as soon as these Local Motions are made in the Brain, doth not fix its Attention immediately upon those Motions themselves, as we do not use to do in Discourse upon meer Sounds, but present...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)