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: 1748

"the Persian Bands / In fearful Wonder ask; What God unseen / Such Pow'r bestow'd, and steel'd a Woman's Heart"

— Warton, Thomas, the elder (1688-1745)

Date: 1748

"These be now my Cares, / To leave the Muse for Virtue [...] but chief my Soul to steel / With adamantine Honour"

— Warton, Thomas, the elder (1688-1745)

Date: Tuesday, August 28, 1750

"Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751

Religion shall "Shall purge their Minds from all impure Allays / Of sordid Selfishness and brutal Sense,"

— West, Gilbert (1703-1756)

Date: 1752

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

— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)

Date: 1752, 1791

"Is apathy, is heart of steel, / Nor ear to hear, nor sense to feel."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

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: 1754

"Such high regard on Piety I place, / On pure simplicity of life; a breast / Steel'd against bribes, by naked truth possess'd, / And with a spotless rigid conscience blest"

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [pseud.]

Date: 1755

"Had not Guilt steel'd thy Heart, awakening Conscience / Wou'd flash Conviction on thee, and each Look, / Shot from these Eyes, be arm'd with Serpent-Horrors, / To turn thee into Stone!"

— Brown, John (1715-1766)