Date: 1700

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

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1706

"Till hard despair wring from the tyrant's soul / The iron tears out."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1706

"The Marble Heart groans with an inward Wound: / Blaspheming Souls of harden'd Steel / Shriek out amaz'd at the new Pangs they feel, / And dread the Eccho's of the Sound."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1706

"Affliction is the Fire, wherein their Mind / From Sin, and drossy Mixtures is refin'd."

— Baker, Daniel (c. 1654-1723)

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: 1717

"But when we cease / To draw the Breath of Life, the Soul on wing / Fleets like a Dream, from Elemental Dross / Disparted, and refin'd."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1723

"If offer'd in a mild and tim'rous Tone, / Nor urg'd and press'd, its [Counsel's] feeble Force is gone, / And leaves no more Impressions on the Mind, / Than Rocks receive from a soft Breeze of Wind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

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)