Date: 1760

"O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay, / Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day, / And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar, / Where dangers threat, and fears alarm no more."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1762

"never joy, / Save th' anxious sordid one to view his gold, / Could touch his marble heart"

— Mickle, William Julius [formerly William Meikle] (1734-1788)

Date: 1762

"But as the fire / Refines the silver; so a taste of woe / Awakes the Soul."

— Mickle, William Julius [formerly William Meikle] (1734-1788)

Date: 1762

"To mine the king of Iniscon,' said Connal, 'heart of steel'"

— Ossian; Macpherson, James (1736-1796)

Date: 1762

"But when the king came, in the sound of his course, what heart of steel could stand!"

— Ossian; Macpherson, James (1736-1796)

Date: 1762

"My soul, that never melted before; it was like the steel of my sword"

— Ossian; Macpherson, James (1736-1796)

Date: 1771

"What steel'd the heart of Brutus, sternly good, / To save fall'n Rome, redeem'd by Cæsar's blood?"

— Colvill, Robert (d. 1788)

Date: November 25, 1773

"You've seen me round the bickers reel / Wi' heart as hale as temper'd steel,"

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: 1774

"His breast, with native courage steel'd, / On fear could ne'er one thought bestow"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1776

"One breast alone against his rage was steel'd, / Secure in spotless Truth's celestial shield"

— Mickle, William Julius [formerly William Meikle] (1734-1788)