Date: 1688

"I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"Oh, Melliora! didst thou but know the thousandth Part of what this Moment I endure, the strong Convulsions of my warring Thoughts, thy Heart, steel'd as it is, and frosted round with Virtue, wou'd burst its icy Shield, and melt in Tears of Blood, to pity me."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"D'elmont, tho' he was a little startled to find her so much more Mistress of her Temper then he believ'd she could be, yet resolv'd to make all possible use of this Opportunity, which probably might be the last he shou'd ever have, look'd on her as she spoke, with Eyes so piercing, so sparkling ...

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"Books were, as it were, Preparatives to Love, and by their softening Influence, melted the Soul, and made it fit for amorous Impressions."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1736

"He saw the melting Passion display itself a thousand different ways; her shining Eyes swam in a Sea of Languor: her rosy Cheeks received a livelier and more fresh Vermillion."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1751

Venus "Bids the warm heart with friendship glow, / Or melt in pity's softer flow; / In chains our boasted reason bind, / And rule at will th'impassion'd mind."

— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)

Date: 1776

"Not that I wou'd encourage the modern philosophy, which reduces all virtue to self-interest; for if I may hazard an unborrowed simile, the liberal mind may be compared to the Nile, which enriches the soil, from its own abundance, without requiring any return."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1777

"Her mind, not less pure and unsullied, was obvious and transparent as the dear rivulet in the sequestered vale."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1778, 1779

"Some of the songs seemed to melt my very soul."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"'Deny me not, most charming of women," cried he, 'deny me not this only moment that is lent me, to pour forth my soul into your gentle ears,--to tell you how much I suffer from your absence,--how much I dread your displeasure,--and how cruelly I am affected by your coldness!'"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)