Date: w. 1740, 1748

"The flannel Crew / With cunning joy the fond repentance view, / Pronounce Him bless'd, his miracles proclaim, / Teach the slight croud t' adore his hallow'd name, / Exalt his praise above the Saints of old, / And coin his sinking conscience into Gold."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)

Date: 1749

"When she, with all the Magnet's Pow'r, / Draws to her sweet enchanting Bow'r / Heroic Souls, and Hearts of Steel."

— Cooke, Thomas (1703-1756)

Date: 1752

"His Hope revives, fresh Courage steels his Heart."

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1752, 1790

The gentleman "To Figg and Broughton ... commits his breast, / To steel it to the fashionable test

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)

Date: 1753

"When Flora sweeps the Table with a Vole, / What Breast so steel'd as Grief can not invade, / To see the Havock on her Beautys made!"

— Cooke, Thomas (1703-1756)

Date: January 28, 1753

"I have heard that his understanding was rather hurt by the absolute retirement in which he lived, and indeed he had an imagination too lively to be trusted to itself; the treasures of it were inexhaustible, but for want of commerce with mankind he made that rich oar into bright but useless medal...

— Montagu [née Robinson], Elizabeth (1718-1800)

Date: 1755

"Malice away, with all her Scorpions, creeps, / And Marius, iron-hearted Marius, weeps."

— Cooke, Thomas (1703-1756)

Date: 1756

"A war of passions in their breasts they feel / As the muse fires, who have not hearts of Steel."

— Cooke, Thomas (1703-1756)

Date: 1759, performed 1776

"Steel then, ye Powers of heav'n, / Steel my firm soul with your own fortitude, / Free from alloy of passion."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1760-7

"Honours, like impressions upon coin, may give an ideal and local value to a bit of base metal; but Gold and Silver will pass all the world over without any other recommendation than their own weight."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)