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: 1747-8

"But the over-refinement of Platonic sentiments always sinks into the dross and feces of that Passion"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1748

"But should some swain more skillful than the rest, / his name on this cold marble breast, / Not rolling ages could deface that name."

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

Date: 1748, 1754

"The sensible Beauty, or Good, is refined from its Dross by partaking of the Moral, and the Moral receives a Stamp, a visible Character and Currency from the Sensible."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

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: 1748, 1749

Wherefore a soul of clay, capable of discerning at one glance, the relations, and consequences of an infinite number of ideas, that are difficult to apprehend, would be evidently preferable to a heavy and stupid soul, formed of the most precious elements."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1748, 1749

"Wit contracts rust amongst those that have none."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1748, 1749

"Words, languages, laws, sciences, and the liberal arts were introduced in time, and by them the rough diamond of our understanding was polished."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1749

"Not all the Gems, which Indian Mines prepare, / Can with that Ruby in thy Soul compare: / Its bright'ning Blaze like Aaron's Breast shall shine, / Alike refulgent, and alike divine"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)