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)

Date: 1733-4

"Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill, / Grafts on this Passion our best principle: / 'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd, / Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd; / The dross cements what else were refin'd, / And in one interest body acts with mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Self-Love but serves the virtuous Mind to wake, / As the small Pebble stirs the peaceful Lake, / The Centre mov'd, a Circle strait succeeds, / Another still, and still another spreads."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1735

"Impenetrable Courage steels his manly Breast"

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1742

"Thus on soft sophas in her cave reclin'd, / Slept the fam'd goddess of the leaden mind."

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Date: 1743

"Enthusiasts of all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and lumpish; but on the least application of heat, they run like lead, which of all metals falls quickest into fusion. "

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"With the same Cement [Authority], ever sure to bind, / We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"Whereas fire in a Genius is truly Promethean, it hurts not its constituent parts, but only fits it (as it does well-tempered steel) for the necessary impressions of art."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)