Date: 1787

"They will not always expertly distinguish the several species of geniuses, the golden, the silver, the brazen, and the iron."

— Adams, John (1735-1826)

Date: January 23, 1787, 1788

"Whelm'd with such violence of woe, / Would melt a heart of steel, / Which only those who love can know, / Who lose can only feel."

— Arley [Miles Peter Andrews (1742- 814)?]

Date: First performed August 4, 1787

"Ill founded precept too long has steel'd my breast--but still 'tis vulnerable-- this trial was too muc"

— Colman, George, the younger (1762-1836)

Date: 1788

"Strong Genius, from whose forge of thought / Forms rise, to quick perfection wrought"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1788

"True love purifies the soul from every base alloy."

— Cobb, James (1756-1818)

Date: 1780, 1788

"Authority! unfeeling power, / Whose iron heart can coldly doom / The Debtor, dragg'd from Pleasure's bower, / To sicken in the dungeon's gloom."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1788

"So have I heard / The captive finch, in narrow cage confin'd, / Charm all his woe away with cheerful song, / Which might have melted e'en a heart of steel / To give him liberty"

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1788

"O yes, this is his valet that Lady Jane mentioned, this is her O'Donovan and my Aircourt, but my heart is steel'd against him"

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: 1788

"With horns, and tail, and hoofs that make folks start; / And in my breast a millstone for a heart!"

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

Date: 1788

"When the sharp iron wounds his inmost soul, / And his strain'd eyes in burning anguish roll; / Will the parch'd negro find, ere he expire, / No pain in hunger, and no heat in fire?"

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)