Date: 1661

"GRACE though she could have with one single dart / The stubborn Will pierc'd th'row her Steely heart."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1694

"Thy mighty Soul, stamp'd of Heav'n's noblest Coin, / More Pure than Gold, more Precious and Divine, / Does in thy Everlasting Vertues shine."

— Cobb, Samuel (bap. 1675, d. 1713)

Date: w. 1680, 1702

"To seek the piece of Silver, hid within / The House, thy Heart; Redeem thy precious Time, / And find it out."

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

Date: w. 1679, 1702

"The Sun of Righteousness, which when it shines / With its Resplendent Conqu'ring Ray, refines / The drossy Nature; rightly purifies / The Heart, consuming all Impurities."

— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)

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: 1723

"If offer'd in a mild and tim'rous Tone, / Nor urg'd and press'd, its [Counsel's] feeble Force is gone, / And leaves no more Impressions on the Mind, / Than Rocks receive from a soft Breeze of Wind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1738, 1739

"Like Twigs, entrusted to the Planter's Pains, / Who prunes, engrafts, indulges, or restrains, / Till in the Garden Ornament they yield, / And Fruit, which else had cumber'd up the Field: / Or that rich Ore we from the Indies bring, / Which bears, refin'd, the Image of the King; / But mix'd for-e...

— Bancks, John (1709-1751)

Date: 1742

"Thus on soft sophas in her cave reclin'd, / Slept the fam'd goddess of the leaden mind."

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Date: September 27, 1746

"My virtue shows what 'twas the gods design'd, / By chance on Africk's clay they stamp'd a Roman mind."

— Hervey, John, second Baron Hervey of Ickworth (1696-1743)

Date: 1765, 1770

"Wonder they cannot blush, they do not feel, / They must be harden'd like an heart of steel."

— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)