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)

Date: 1800-1803

"And these are the gems of the Human Soul"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1800-1803

"The countless gold of the akeing heart"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1803

"Charms with soft words, and sooths with amorous wiles, / Her iron-hearted Lord,--and Pluto smiles."

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Date: c. 1804-1811, 1818

"For every human heart has gates of brass & bars of adamant, / Which few dare unbar because dread Og & Anak guard the gates"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)