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: 1746

"And with him took none but O'Neil, / Whose heart he found as true as steel"

— Graham, Dougal (bap. 1721, d. 1779)

Date: 1757

"For, as an alloy to its very great advantages, there is something selfish, ungenerous and illiberal in the nature and views of trade, that tends to debase and sink the mind below its natural state."

— Harris, Joseph (bap. 1704, d. 1764)

Date: 1775

"Need we the influence of the northern star / To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war? "

— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)

Date: 1789

"There northern Kametzchatka's dreary strand, / And frozen Isles, your daring toils demand: / Again your British hearts of steel"

— Colvill, Robert (d. 1788)

Date: 1791

"Hail to each ancient sacred shade / Of those, who gave the Muses aid, / Skill'd verse mysterious to unfold, / And set each brilliant thought in gold."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1795

"Disdaining even the thought of flight or fear, / His life, his soul, by steady valor steel'd."

— Pye, Henry James (1745-1813)

Date: 1796

"Low in a humble Preface authors kneel; / In vain, the wearied reader's heart is steel."

— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)