Date: 1785

The mind may be "polish'd"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

"Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave / Need no such aids as superstition lends / To steel their hearts against the dread of death!"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

"Yet patient wait, till grace his will subdue, / The fire his dross, the spirit his heart renew:"

— Perronet, Edward (1721-1792)

Date: 1785

"While in high life our hearts the fashions steel, / Too gay to listen, and too fine to feel--"

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1785-7, 1791, 1792

"Yet are there some who think (but what a shame!) / Poor people's souls like pence of Birmingham, / Adulterated brass--base stuff--abhorr'd-- / That never can pass current with the Lord; / And think because of wealth they boast a store, / With ev'ry freedom they may treat the poor."

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1786

One may steal "The gem of truth from his unguarded soul"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1787-1818

"The countless gold of a merry heart / The rubies & pearls of a loving eye / The indolent never can bring to the mart / Nor the secret hoard up in his treasury"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: w. 1787-1818

"You say reserve & modesty he has / Whose heart is iron his head wood & his face brass."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1787

"Whate'er pursuits the attentive mind employ / Must mark our manners with a strong alloy"

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

Date: 1787

"Love was ever the touchstone to try the fine mind, / Sterling Virtue 'twill never debase; / No alloy can we know, from a passion refin'd,"

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)