Date: 1785

"Thus rust the Mind's best powers."

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: 1785

"Even if, by a special disfavor of fortune or by the niggardly provision of a stepmotherly nature, this will should wholly lack the capacity to carry out its purpose--if with its greatest efforts it should yet achieve nothing and only the good will were left (not, of course, as a mere wish but as...

— Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)

Date: 1785

Wisdom is a pearl "with most success / Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

The mind may be "polish'd"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

"Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave / Need no such aids as superstition lends / To steel their hearts against the dread of death!"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1785

"Yet patient wait, till grace his will subdue, / The fire his dross, the spirit his heart renew:"

— Perronet, Edward (1721-1792)

Date: 1785

"While in high life our hearts the fashions steel, / Too gay to listen, and too fine to feel--"

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1785-7, 1791, 1792

"Yet are there some who think (but what a shame!) / Poor people's souls like pence of Birmingham, / Adulterated brass--base stuff--abhorr'd-- / That never can pass current with the Lord; / And think because of wealth they boast a store, / With ev'ry freedom they may treat the poor."

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1786

"But if (which Pow'rs above prevent) / That iron-hearted carl, Want, / Attended, in his grim advances, / By sad mistakes, and black mischances"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1786

"'While in his Breast he bears, to Fear unknown, / 'A rigid Heart of Iron or of Stone!"

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838); Moschus