Date: 1697, 1700

"Nor think thy force too small, too weak thy Mind / Because to Clay unequally confined; / Its Power is wondrous Great; how small a Mass / Of Gold or Gems, exceeds vast Heaps of Brass?"

— Manilius, Marcus (fl. 1st Century AD), Creech, Thomas (1659-1700)

Date: 1700

"As softest metals are not slow to melt, / And pity soonest runs in gentle minds:"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"[N]o alloy / Of Flesh" can destroy the "sprightly Beauties" of the soul "Nor Death nor Fate can snatch the lasting Joy. / Through ev'ry Limb the active Spirit flows;
Diffusing Life and Vigour as it goes, / But is it self unmixt, and free from Dross"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"Black Night comes on, and interrupts the Day, / E'er it can chase the Mists and Fogs away; / The Dregs of Flesh and Drossy Lees, o'errun / The Soul, and weigh the strugling Spirit down:"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1714, 1723

"Tormenting Doubts my troubled Soul perplex, / But my steel'd Breast no certain Fears can vex."

— Hughes, Jabez (1685-1731)

Date: 1724, 1787

"Sure thou wilt weep, and tender sorrows feel; / Nor flint thy heart, nor is thy breast of steel."

— Welsted, Leonard (1688-1747)

Date: 1735

"Impenetrable Courage steels his manly Breast"

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1745

"Thou'lt weep, I know thy gentle Soul, my Fair, / No senseless Steel, no rugged Flint dwells there."

— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)

Date: 1762

"To mine the king of Iniscon,' said Connal, 'heart of steel'"

— Ossian; Macpherson, James (1736-1796)