Date: 1597

"I took him for the plainest harmless creature / That breathed upon the earth, a Christian, / Made him my book wherein my soul recorded / The history of all her secret thoughts."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1603

"Yea, from the table of my memory / I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, / All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, / That youth and observation copied there, / And thy commandment all alone shall live / Within the book and volume of my brain / Unmixed with baser matter."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1665

Minds are "like smooth paper never writ upon, / When folded up, by some impression / Marks will remain it never had before, / And ne're return to former smoothness more."

— Howard, Sir Robert (1626-1698)

Date: August, 1674; 1675

"Your bounties too him have long since deeply engraven his crimes in my Soul"

— Crowne, John (bap. 1641, d. 1712)

Date: November 25, 1707; 1708

"The cursed Deed will turn me savage wild, / Blot ev'ry Thought of Nature from my Soul."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1717

"Thou hast resolv'd his Fate, I read thy Soul, / This ten long Months I've study'd thy dark Breast / And know the Want of Vertue in thy Frame, / Which must subject thee to the Mind, that knows thee."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: April 18, 1721

"If, after Death, our Forms (as some believe) / Shall be transparent, naked every Thought, / And Friends meet Friends, and read each other's Hearts, / Thou'lt know one day, that thou wast held most dear. / Farewel."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Sir, let her crime / Erase the faithful characters, which love / Imprinted on your heart."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1731

"Cruelly kind, press inward, on my Heart; / But fright not Reason, cling not to my Thought, / Blot, blot Remembrance out, strike Home, at Life, / Pour, all at once, Oblivion on my Soul, / And quench me, into Quiet."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1753

"Afflictions such as hers are prying, and lend those Eyes that read the Soul."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)