Date: 1734

"Conscience hears / The words of anguish, and dissolves in tears. / Ev'n iron souls relent, and hearts of stone / Burst at these mournings, and repeat the groan:"

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1752, 1791

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

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1762

"What but the casting in of grace / This stony, iron heart, can raise, / To heavenly turn my earthly love, / And lift my soul to things above"

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: 1788

"Ah! think not, WHITE, the Muse from fancy brings / Those woes, for Hist'ry sanctions what she sings, / Her bloody Annals still does Truth unfold, / Stain'd with the victims of soul-spotting gold."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1803

"Charms with soft words, and sooths with amorous wiles, / Her iron-hearted Lord,--and Pluto smiles."

— Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)