Date: September 27, 1746

"My virtue shows what 'twas the gods design'd, / By chance on Africk's clay they stamp'd a Roman mind."

— Hervey, John, second Baron Hervey of Ickworth (1696-1743)

Date: 1755

"Prest with heart corroding grief and years, / To the gay court a rural shed prefers."

— Pope [from Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language]

Date: 1765, 1770

"Wonder they cannot blush, they do not feel, / They must be harden'd like an heart of steel."

— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)

Date: 1799

"Ignorance has set her stamp upon him--his mind seared to every virtuous impression--his heart flint, and his temper moved by the slightest breath"

— West, Matthew (d. 1814); Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1814, 1816, 1896

"No Soul should mix among the courtly Train, ... Among the higher, or the lower, Class, / Whose breast's not form'd of steel, and front of brass!"

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)