Date: 1693

"Had the too tender Gods first made / Men's Hearts as hard as Steel, / Their Weakness ne're had been betraid / By ev'ry stroak they feel."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

Date: 1693

"Musick alone inflames my drooping Mind; / Nay, she would mount her Wings, and fly away, / Not be confin'd to this dull Lump of Clay, / Did not the Charms of Musick most divine / Unite, and things so wide, so close combine."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

Date: 1734, 1735

"Their dire Effects the Wretched feel: / Thy Waters turn the Heart to Steel."

— Barber, Mary (c.1685-1755)

Date: 1738

"Matchless Numbers! surely blest / Which cou'd touch that Iron Breast, / That ne'er before had Pity felt"

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1738

"The Grecian Prince the Love of Virtue taught: / With Fortitude and Patience steel'd his Breast."

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1738, 1792

"Love ... Give the soft sex to loathe inglorious rest, / String the weak arm, and steel the snowy breast!"

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1739

"But come ye purer souls from dross refin'd, / The blameless heart and uncorrupted mind!"

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1742

As an artist pours and extracts gold from a mold, "So virtuous Education forms the Mind, / And leaves for Life the beauteous Stamp behind!"

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1749

"Not all the Gems, which Indian Mines prepare, / Can with that Ruby in thy Soul compare: / Its bright'ning Blaze like Aaron's Breast shall shine, / Alike refulgent, and alike divine"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)

Date: 1753

Inspiration "lifts the Heart on Raptures all refin'd, / And leaves its mortal Dross far, far behind"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)