"The Mind of Man is allowed to be a Rasa Tabula, which in the Old Account of things, alludes to those Tablets of Wax, on which the Ancients wrote and engross'd all their Business; But in a Modern Translation, this can signify nothing else, but a fair Sheet of Paper: over which we must suppose there are Swarms and Clusters of Letters, Vowels, and Consonants, the Elements and Atoms of Literature, continually playing and hovering (for this System is like that of the Origin of the World, Man being in himself a Perfect Microcosm) and upon a certain time, when these volatile Intelligences are in the mind of it, they settle and coagulate: and by degrees form themselves into first Principles and Postulata, and so into Consequences and Corollaries, and thence gradually into Notions, Systems, and Hypotheses; And this is the Rise, Progress, and Perfection of Human Understanding, so far as that Understanding appears to the World, under the Artificial Notions of Printing and Publishing."
A Dialogue Between Timothy and Philatheus
William Oldisworth, <u>A Dialogue Between Timothy and Philatheus. In Which the Principles and Projects of a Late Whimsical Book, Intituled, (the Rights of the Christian Church, &C.) Are Fairly Stated, and Answered in Their Kind</u>, 3 vols (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1709-11). &lt;<a href="http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=viva_uva&tabID=T001&docId=CW120517997&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE">Link to ECCO</a>&gt;