Date: 1789, 1794

"In every cry of every Man / In every Infants cry of fear / In every voice; in every ban / The mind-forg'd manacles I hear."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1790

"Yet ruthless Rulers! hearts of stone and steel!"

— Merry, Robert (1755-1798)

Date: 1792

"I must steel my heart, Fairfax, when I go to the encounter; must recapitulate all my wrongs."

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

Date: 1792

"I know it to be folly, and I will endeavour to steel my heart against this as well as other mistakes."

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

Date: 1793

"There, train'd amid slaughter and ruin to wade, / They toil in the heart-steeling, barbarous trade."

— Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813)

Date: 1793

"Amidst the lustful fires he walks: his feet become like brass, / His knees and thighs like silver, & his breast and head like gold."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1794

" The Human Face, a Furnace seal'd / The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1794, 1797

"If you have reduced me to the necessity of again debating the same painful and gloomy question, if you cannot give that elasticity to my mind which will animate it to despise difficulty and steel it against injustice, however good your intentions may have been, I fear you have but imposed misery...

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

Date: 1795

"You should not soften, but steel my heart!"

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

Date: 1798

"Begone, iron-hearted wretch!"

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)