Date: 1718

"Epicurus, that it [sperm] is a Fragment torn from the Body and Soul."

— Plutarch (c. 46-120)

Date: 1718

""Lausippus and Zeno, [sperm] 'tis a Body, and it is a Fragment of the Soul."

— Plutarch (c. 46-120)

Date: 1718

"Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, that the Spermatick Faculty is incorporeal, as the Mind is which moves the Body, but the effused Matter is corporeal."

— Plutarch (c. 46-120)

Date: 1719-25

"A child, which is incapable of resisting grace, and is as it were a rasa tabula before God, affords a lively representation of that which grace is able to effect even in the heart of an old sinner."

— Quesnel, Pasquier (1634-1719); Russel, Richard (1685-1756)

Date: 1719, 1720

"For, says he, PUNS are like so many Torch-Lights in the Head, that give the Soul a very distinct View of those Images, which she before seemed to groap after as if she had been imprisoned in a Dungeon."

— Sheridan, Thomas (1687-1738)

Date: 1720

"But Adam's Soul being put in his Body, his Brain was a Tabula rasa, as White Paper, had no Impressions in it, but such as either God put in it, or such as came to him by his Senses."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1720

"For as in the Body Politick, the Prince, (whom Seneca calls the Soul of the Commonwealth.) receiveth no Passages of State, or false Ones, where there is Negligence, or Disability in those subjectate Inquirers, (whom Xenophon terms the Eyes and Ears of Kings.) In like Manner the Soul of Man being...

— Hales, John (1584-1656)

Date: 1722

"For before the Vessel be seasoned with one kind of Liquor, it is equally capable of all, and so the Wax is indifferent to any Impression, before it is moulded and determined by a particular Seal: If the Mind be a rasa Tabula, as Aristotle would have it, then this White Paper may best be i...

— Hartcliffe, John (1651/2-1712)

Date: 1722

"And here indeed I have been often put upon a serious Consideration, how such a Heap of Pultis like Matter, a kind of Quag or Bog, and which as Sydenham observes, carries so little Analogy in its Form, and appears seemingly so unlikely to manage an Office of Intelligence, should yet be qualified ...

— Turner, Daniel (1667-1741)

Date: 1722

"Or that as the Rays of Light from the Sun are instantly transmitted to all the sublunary Parts of the great World; so hence the Sensitivum Quid, in like Manner, through the nervous Tubes, having here their Origin, should as suddenly as those Rays darted from that great Luminary, be likewi...

— Turner, Daniel (1667-1741)