Date: 1611

"His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone."

— Author Unknown

Date: 1611

"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh."

— Author Unknown

Date: 1684

"Sad Frailty howere both Body, Mind display, / That brighter Coin bad Mixture does Allay."

— Harington, John (1627-1700)

Date: 1684

"This Youth to dinner came, Intruding fashion, / With certain Friend; Danc'd with that Golden Lass; / Found Courting pause sometimes, no Heart of brass, / Softned, orecame: yet once before beheld; / Woo'd then by Looks, now th' Hand and Tongue reveal'd / ...

— Harington, John (1627-1700)

Date: 1684

"Proud sturdy Soul, most Iron-temper'd Brest, / As Subtil too; bad Stratagems possest"

— Harington, John (1627-1700)

Date: 1685

Conscience "wounds indeed, / And makes the Heart of hardest Mettal bleed."

— Clark, William (fl. 1663-1685)

Date: 1687

"Each Note tun'd up the Soul, calcin'd the Mind, / Commenc'd them something more than humane kind; / Their very Bodies into-Souls refin'd."

— Heyrick, Thomas (bap. 1649. d. 1694)

Date: 1693

"Base vulgar drossie minds, with more alloy / Then is that captive wealth they might enjoy; / Which Thieves may steal, which Rust or Fire destroy;"

— Wesley, Samuel, The Elder (bap. 1662, d. 1735)

Date: 1697, 1700

"Nor think thy force too small, too weak thy Mind / Because to Clay unequally confined; / Its Power is wondrous Great; how small a Mass / Of Gold or Gems, exceeds vast Heaps of Brass?"

— Manilius, Marcus (fl. 1st Century AD), Creech, Thomas (1659-1700)

Date: 1697

"Our Senses to the Mind while lodg'd in Clay, / Do all their various Images convey. / Things that we tast, and feel, and see, afford / The Seeds of Thought with which our Minds are stor'd."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)