Date: 1700

"As softest metals are not slow to melt, / And pity soonest runs in gentle minds:"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1717

"Such feign'd Amours, and real Hate / Attend the Matrimonial State; / When sacred Vows are bought and sold, / And Hearts are ty'd with Threads of Gold."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1722

"No Man can boast a God-like Mind, / From that Infernal Dross refin'd; / By Nature all are Base"

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: 1727

"Ned cou'd not well digest this Change, / Forc'd in the World at large to range; / With Babel's Monarch turn'd to grass, / Wou'd it not break an Heart of Brass?"

— Somervile, William (1675-1742)

Date: 1759

"Their grief, however, like their joy, was transient; every thing floated in their mind unconnected with the past or future, so that one desire easily gave way to another, as a second stone cast into the water effaces and confounds the circles of the first."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1761

"You, the miser's haunt be near; / Break his rest with causeless fear, / Creak his doors, his windows shake, / 'Till his iron heart shall quake."

— Hawkesworth, John (bap. 1720, d. 1773)

Date: 1774

"Her soul, refin'd from passion's base alloy, / Seem'd wrapt in visions of seraphic joy."

— Roberts, William Hayward (d. 1791)

Date: 1777

"The greedy Creditor, whose flinty breast / The iron hand of Avarice hath press'd, / Who never own'd Humanity's soft claim"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1777

"Where dwells the soul against Compassion steel'd, / Or who disdains the generous tear to yield?"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1777

"Courage, the warrior's bosom steel'd."

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)