Date: 1797

"Their [young persons'] minds are like a sheet of white paper, which takes any impression that it is proposed to make upon it."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1797

"You are juvenile, and like unto a white sheet of paper, on which vice or righteousness may be impressed."

— Anonymous

Date: 1797

In William Collins's "endeavours to embody the fleeting forms of mind, and clothe them with correspondent imagery, he is not infrequently obscure."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1797

"Tabula rasa. Lat.--'A shaved or smoothed tablet.'--His mind is a tabula rasa--it is a mere blank."

— MacDonnel, David Evans (fl. 1797)

Date: 1797, 1810

"For pressure but new-springs the generous mind; /As gold by Vulcan's torture is refined."

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: July 1797, 1810

"See, while his thunders iron hearts assail, / The tyrants of each hemisphere turn pale!"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: w. 1766, 1797

" His youth, his comeliness, his country too, / Will stamp him very Curan in her heart"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: w. 1766, 1797

"Has my moral pencil / So oft portray'd the forms of truth and falshood, / In their just lineaments, to thy mind's eye"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: w. 1766, 1797

"The future whole infix upon thy mind; / Be there each line in truth ideal drawn"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: w. 1746, 1797

"His youthful breast, by years mature refin'd, / May shine the mirror of thy blameless mind."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)