Date: 1667

"Mans body is a box till death it split / The Soul, that precious Gem is kept in it."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

" But under God this Jewel [the Conscience], O esteem / For its great worth, as rarest next to Christ"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"Nor could they trouble us, but that our mind / Hath its own glory unto dross confin'd."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"So Age and Death by slow approches come, / And by that just inevitable doom / By which the Soul (her cloggy dross once gone) / Puts on Perfection, and resumes her own."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667, 1710

"And there are very few that have any true Kindness for it, and thou knowest not the Worth of that Jewel, thy Soul; but here, here's a Friend, if thou wilt but leave it with him, he will take care of it, it shall not be marted away for nothing."

— Janeway, James (1636?-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood / Praying; for from the mercy-seat above / Prevenient grace descending had removed / The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh / Regenerate grow instead."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Him there they found / Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve, / Assaying by his devilish art to reach / The organs of her fancy, and with them forge / Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1673

"[Y]our whole frame [is] as innocent, and holy, as if your being were all soul and spirit, without the gross allay of flesh and bloud"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1675

"Our Poet hope's you'll not expect to day, / T'have all his down-right thoughts drest up so gay, / If his Coyn chinks too much, you'll doubt allay."

— Fane, Sir Francis (d. 1691)

Date: 1675

"Work, work, my hearts of Gold."

— Duffett, Thomas (fl. 1674-1678); William Shakespeare (1564-1616)