&quot;To assist the imagination, indeed, but by no means in any consistency with the notion of a nervous fluid, it had been conceived that ideas resembled characters drawn upon a tablet; and the language in which we generally speak of ideas, and their affections, is borrowed from this hypothesis."
Hartley's Theory of the Human Mind, on the Principle of the Association of Ideas; with Essays Relating to the Subject of It
At least 4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1775, 1776, 1790).<br>
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See <u>Hartley’s Theory of the Human Mind, on the Principle of the Association of Ideas; With Essays Relating to the Subject of It. By Joseph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S.</u> (London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1775). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T141560">Link to ESTC</a>&gt;